First record of Seebohm's Wheatear 
Oenanthe oenanthe seebohmi in Egypt 
Ahmed M Riad 
Sahl Zayat is a vegetated wadi midway between the Kharga and 
Dakhla oases in the Western Desert of Egypt. On 16 March 1995 there 
were many migrants in this area: Grey Heron Ardea cinerea, Subalpine 
Warbler Sylvia cantillans, Yellow Motacilla flava and White Wagtails 
M.alba and several species of wheatear Oenanthe sp. were among those 
present. A solitary wheatear on the edge of a rock caught my atten- 
tion. I noted that it exhibited the same general wing colouration and 
pattern as Northern Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe, but the face was 
sooty black with a well defined white supercilium. Since a Black- 
eared Wheatear O.hispanica of the black- throated form was present, 
comparison was easy. The bird appeared identical to the seebohmi race 
of Northern Wheatear, which breeds in Algeria and Morocco and 
migrates southwards as far as Mauretania, Senegal and Mali. This 
record represents the first for Egypt, although there are records from 
the Libyan desert (Cramp 1988). 
Description 
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