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Northern wheatear migration Oenanthe oenanthe
ⶠFollow the Northern wheatear across the big globe
Press ⶠto play the year. Line: a simplified typical route, joining the main cluster of GBIF records in each month (adjusted for observer effort).
| Scientific name | Oenanthe oenanthe |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 28 cm |
| IUCN status | Least concern |
| Records mapped | 1,242,519 (GBIF) |
| GPS / geolocator tracks | none with an open licence yet |
Facts from Wikidata Q26420 (CC0).
When does the Northern wheatear arrive in the UK?
A summer visitor in the records: sightings rise sharply from late March, are near their peak by early April, and fall away after mid October.
Bars: this speciesâ share of all UK bird records in GBIF (CC0/CC BY), by month, scaled to the peak month. Based on 116,020 UK records. Weekly counts from the GBIF occurrence search API (country=GB). Dates are read from records, not from a survey, so treat them as a guide.
When do they arrive in and leave the UK? â
Migration in the data
1,242,519 GBIF records (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licences only) are mapped here, in 1.41° grid cells, month by month.
In Europe and Africa, the centre of the records (adjusted for observer effort) is furthest north in July (about 55°N) and furthest south in January (about 10°N).
Month by month: centre of records in Europe and Africa
| Month | Centre (latitude) | South of the Equator |
|---|---|---|
| January | 10°N | 18% |
| February | 15°N | 14% |
| March | 33°N | 2% |
| April | 44°N | 0% |
| May | 52°N | 0% |
| June | 54°N | 0% |
| July | 55°N | 0% |
| August | 53°N | 0% |
| September | 48°N | 0% |
| October | 41°N | 2% |
| November | 24°N | 11% |
| December | 11°N | 13% |
Tracked birds
No openly licensed (CC0 / CC BY) tracking data package for this species was found in the Movebank Data Repository yet, so only records are shown.
About the Northern wheatear
The northern wheatear or wheatear is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It is the most widespread member of the wheatear genus Oenanthe in Europe and North and Central Asia. The northern wheatear is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in open stony country in Europe and east across the Palearctic with footholds in northeastern Canada and Greenland as well as in northwestern Canada and Alaska. âŠ
From the Wikipedia article âNorthern wheatearâ (revision 1357474464), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
GBIF occurrence records, licence CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only, observations only (no specimens), filtered with: taxonKey=5231240&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&hasGeospatialIssue=false&basisOfRecord=HUMAN_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=MACHINE_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=OBSERVATION. Monthly queries: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec. GBIF.org (23 October 2026) occurrence data accessed via the GBIF API; a GBIF download DOI is still to be added. Contributing datasets.