Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several flycatchers of the genus Oenanthe primarily of Eurasia and Africa, having a gray back, buff breast, and white rump.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An ear of wheat.
  • noun A chat of the genus Saxicola, Saxicola œnanthe, the stone-chat, fallow-finch, or whitetail, an oscine passerine bird abundant in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and found sparingly in North America.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A small European singing bird (Saxicola œnanthe). The male is white beneath, bluish gray above, with black wings and a black stripe through each eye. The tail is black at the tip and in the middle, but white at the base and on each side. Called also checkbird, chickell, dykehopper, fallow chat, fallow finch, stonechat, and whitetail.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of various passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe that feed on insects.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small songbird of northern America and Eurasia having a distinctive white rump

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from earlier wheatears (taken as pl.) : probably by folk etymology from white + arse.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

wheat +‎ ear

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Examples

  • As I watch the wheatear bobbing up and down on the roll of hay, I wish it well, and look forward to welcoming it again next spring, as it passes through my home patch once more, on its way north.

    Birdwatch: Wheatear 2011

  • It was a female wheatear, on Blackford Moor, a mile or so behind my home.

    Birdwatch: Wheatear 2011

  • Adult male pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka (protonym, Motacilla pleschanka), also known as the common pied wheatear, Pleschanka's wheatear, or as Pleschanka's (pied) chat, photographed at Debre Libanos, Ethiopia (Africa).

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

  • Here's a video that was shot along the coast of the Black Sea in Bulgaria of a singing male pied wheatear: You are invited to review all of the daily mystery birds by going to their dedicated graphic index page.

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

  • Response: This is an adult male pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka.

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

  • Here's a video that was shot along the coast of the Black Sea in Bulgaria of a singing male pied wheatear: You are invited to review all of the daily mystery birds by going to their dedicated graphic index page.

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

  • Response: This is an adult male pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka.

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

  • Adult male pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka (protonym, Motacilla pleschanka), also known as the common pied wheatear, Pleschanka's wheatear, or as Pleschanka's (pied) chat, photographed at Debre Libanos, Ethiopia (Africa).

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

  • This species is strongly dichromatic, meaning that the males and females have distinctive plumage colours and patterns -- a characteristic that distinguishes it from the monochromatic Cyprus pied wheatear, Oenanthe cypriaca, with which it was formerly considered to be conspecific.

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

  • This species is strongly dichromatic, meaning that the males and females have distinctive plumage colours and patterns -- a characteristic that distinguishes it from the monochromatic Cyprus pied wheatear, Oenanthe cypriaca, with which it was formerly considered to be conspecific.

    Mystery bird: Pied wheatear, Oenanthe pleschanka 2011

Comments

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  • A small passerine bird, Saxicola nanthe, widely distributed over the Old World, having a bluish-grey back, white belly, rump, and upper tail-coverts, and blackish wings.

    Love the etymology on this word: basically, it derives from the words for "white ass."

    Oh, love the bird, too. :-)

    February 1, 2007

  • a small tear or a conglomeration of wheat

    February 13, 2012

  • "Black wheatears that must have a brood not far: one of the smaller eagles in the sky."

    Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, p 53 of the Norton paperback edition

    July 8, 2019