Some small birds

Habitat of Red-tailed Wheatear

After arrival at CEDO around lunch time we spent the remainder of the day in the Banni grasslands and Chhari Dhand. We started in an area of gravelly desert flats with rocky outcrops and quickly found a fine Red-tailed (formerly Rufous-tailed) Wheatear that Jugal had first located some days ago. This is the subspecies chrysopygia which some (including Birds of South Asia) consider warrants full specific status. Two other wheatears featured prominently throughout our birding in Kutch; Isabelline and Desert. Both favour more barren habitats than Variable but all proved to be very approachable as did the Siberian Stonechats in the grasslands. Several of the Desert Wheatears were acquiring their very smart breeding plumage. Common as the wheatears were, they (and all other passerines) were roundly eclipsed by the large flocks of Greater Short-toed Larks which swarmed over the dry lands and the tracks and by the gatherings of House Sparrows (apparently of the large north western Himalayan race parkini) in the thorn scrub.