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The UK Bird Atlas

Desert Wheatear (Oenanthe deserti)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks October · Chats, Old World Flycatchers, and Allies · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Desert Wheatear (Oenanthe deserti)
El Golli Mohamed, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Desert Wheatear: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Desert Wheatear has been recorded in 53 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (2%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England and Scotland. Reporting peaks in October.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
4% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 4%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 19%<1%Moderate
February 3%<1%High
March 9%<1%Low
April 0%<1%Insufficient records
May 0%<1%Insufficient records
June 0%<1%Very high
July 0%<1%Insufficient records
August 0%<1%Insufficient records
September 0%<1%Very high
October 100%<1%Very high
November 76%<1%Very high
December 9%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in October

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU31Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY50Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NK06Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NZ53Hartlepool, England100%Very high
TL91Essex, England100%Very high
TR06Kent, England100%Very high
TR26Kent, England100%Very high
TR36Kent, England100%Very high
TR47Kent, England100%Very high
TR46Sea, off Kent40%High

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.