Bird in the Spotlight: Northern Wheatear

3 hours ago

7 min read

15 September, 2026

By Henry Luedtke

Northern Wheatear near Bruges, Belgium. Photo by Frank Vassen, CC BY 2.0, via theworldbirds.org.

If someone asked you which bird species migrate between Africa and North America, you might think it was a trick question. Despite the occasional vagrant, Old and New World bird movements are largely separated by the Atlantic Ocean. A small number of Arctic species will travel between North America and Europe, such as the Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus), but very few carry on towards Africa.

The Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) nearly qualifies, as it crosses between the continents on its famous pole-to-pole journeys, but will only make stopovers in Africa (Egevang et al. 2010). A true example of an Africa-America migrant could be the Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius), although information on its movements is lacking (Cramp and Simmons 1982; Tracy et al. 2020), or the Long-tailed Jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus), but this bird is mainly pelagic (Gilg et al. 2013). It is certainly an uncommon flyway and not an easy question to answer, and you would be forgiven for thinking terrestrial species are outside consideration, yet the avian world is full of exceptions and surprises.

Northern Wheatear in northern Sweden. Photo by Stephanie Bartlett.

Birds of all types make unbelievable migratory journeys, but most long-distance routes, especially if intercontinental, run North-South (Böhning-Gaese et al. 1998). Very few long-distance migrants travel East-West. One of the few exceptions to this rule and one of the few direct migratory links between Africa and North America is not another wader or marine bird but is instead a songbird, the Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe).

Map of two main North American Northern Wheatear migration routes based on the work of Bairlein et al. (2012). Circles represent breeding sites. (a) shows the transatlantic route of O. o. leucorhoa and (b) shows the continental route of O. o. oenanthe. African wintering range shown in insert based off range map available at BirdLife Datazone(BirdLife International 2018). Map by Henry Luedtke.

The Northern Wheatear populations in North America participate in epic migratory journeys spanning half the world. It is one of the few species on the planet to breed in the Western Hemisphere and overwinter in the Eastern Hemisphere. After the completion of the breeding season and with hopefully enough fat stores saved, something in the genes of these birds tell them to take flight, usually at night, and head back to Africa. The birds breeding in eastern Canada and Greenland will fly across the North Atlantic Ocean before reaching their first stopover sites in Europe and descending south across the Sahara to West Africa.

This unique transatlantic journey is usually completed nonstop. One bird fitted with a geolocator that left Baffin Island took only 4 days to reach the British Isles, a journey of about 3,400km, meaning the bird flew at a rate of nearly 850km a day (Bairlein et al. 2012). There is even evidence that some birds may choose to take an even more direct route across the Atlantic straight to Africa via the Canary Islands (Thorup et al. 2006). The furthest traveling Northern Wheatears breed in Alaska and travel 14,500km one way across the Bering Strait and over all of Eurasia before finally arriving in Africa, one of the longest migrations of any songbird (Schmaljohann et al. 2012).

Northern Wheatear in northern Norway. Photo by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Despite breeding across the northern hemisphere, from the tundra of Alaska and Siberia, to the grassy steppes of Central Asia, and the agricultural landscapes of Europe, nearly all Northern Wheatears overwinter in Sub-Saharan Africa (Kaboli et al. 2007; Kessel and Gibson 1978). In whatever distant place they are seen, their pale gray and brown feathers and distinctive black face mask remind one of its African home, bringing to mind other Sahelian species such as coursers, pratincoles, and bustards.

Temminck's Courser (Cursorius temminckii) (L) and Collared Pratincole (Glareola pratincole) (R). Photos by Nick Borrow via the worldofbirds.org. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Northern Wheatears are ground-dwelling and ground-foraging birds, preferring wide, open landscapes with little tree cover. They mainly hunt insects but will occasionally forage berries as well. Breeding birds inhabit mainly dry tundra or short-grass uplands, ideally with scatterings of rocks to hide their nest entrance amongst. They have adapted to human presence and are known to also build their nests in artificial structures such as pipes or wood piles (Panov 2005).

As much a symbol of the Sahel as the northern latitudes, the arrival of Northern Wheatear in spring is associated with the blossoming of the grapevines in Greece, which is alluded to by their scientific name Oenanthe, a combination of the Greek words for “wine” and “flower;” which is far more flattering than the English common name, which is a corruption of a word referring to their distinctive white rump (Dunn et al. 2022).

A young Northern Wheatear on the isle of Stora Karlsö, Sweden. Photo by Nico Arcilla.

Despite a wide distribution and potentially hundreds of millions of mature individuals in the global population, Northern Wheatear numbers are declining (BirdLife International 2018). Declines are most pronounced in Europe due to the steady loss of open spaces and semi-natural habitats, as well as the intensification of agricultural practices. It is considered Near Threatened in the European Union (BirdLife International 2021), and Critically Endangered in Germany (Grüneberg et al. 2016). Remaining habitats in Germany and other similarly developed landscapes are highly fragmented, with inbreeding now a concern for these remaining populations (van Oosten et al. 2016). The threats facing Northern Wheatear are common to many bird species (Rigel et al. 2023). Grassland breeding birds are facing the steepest declines of all types of birds in North America and Europe (Bowler et al. 2019; Burns et al. 2021; Rosenberg et al. 2019), and tundra ecosystems are especially threatened by climate change (Smith et al. 2020).

The Northern Wheatear is one of the world’s most remarkable songbirds. Its migratory journey is exceptional, and one marvels to think of the diversity of places these little birds visit. In their short lives, these birds may meet both muskox and elephant, sing with robins as well as bee-eaters, and fly over both glaciers and deserts. Northern Wheatears are not only an example of the wonders of avian migration but also a symbol of the interconnectedness of nature, reminding us that seemingly distant places still lie on a single planet.

Northern Wheatear in Germany’s East Frisian Islands in the North Sea. Photo by Stephan Sprinz, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

References

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