Desert Wheatear photographed at Vazon [VAZ] on 5/12/2012 Photo: © Anthony Loaring (visit site)

The Desert Wheatear is a rare vagrant to north-west Europe. Its breeding distribution is widespread, occurring throughout the deserts of North Africa, the Middle East and across Asia. Several races could be involved in vagrancy including O. d. atrogularis of Central Asia, O. d. deserti from the Middle East or O. d. homochroa from western North Africa.

There are three records for Guernsey, all recorded in November. The first record was of a male recorded feeding on the beach at L'Eree between 24th and 28th November 1991. Over a decade later the second record was found by the same observer on the same day in November at Jaonneuse (24th November to 4th December 2002) and this was followed by a third record three years later at Chouet and later at Pulias between 13th and 29th November 2005.