Tuesday, December 18, 2018

White-Crowned Wheatear

Another bird from the Erg Chebbi Desert of Morocco that I photographed several years ago was the white-crowned wheatear, also known as the white-crowned black wheatear, closely related to the black wheatear. It has a range including many pockets of North Africa and much of Saudi Arabia. The "wheat" and "ear" are 16th century linguistic corruptions of the words for "white" and "arse," referring to the white rump in many wheatears. 
White-crowned wheatear
It is all black, except for a white rump, mainly white tail and a white crown (but only in adults). Males and females look similar. It mainly eats insects. 

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