thumb|Isabelline wheatear, Oenanthe isabellina from Thrithala Palakkad, Kerala, India
The isabelline wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina) is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher in the family Muscicapidae. It is a migratory insectivorous bird. Its habitat is steppe and open countryside and it breeds in southern Russia and Central Asia to northern Pakistan, wintering in Africa and northwestern India. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
In colouring it resembles a female northern wheatear but it is larger at in length, more upright and more tawny in colour, and has more black on its tail. The term isabelline refers to the parchment-like colouration. The axillaries and underwing coverts are white, whereas in the commoner bird they are mottled with grey. The sexes are similar.
Etymology
The name is from the specific isabellinus, Neo-Latin for "greyish-yellow", and is likely in reference to Isabella I of Castile, who is said to have promised not to change her undergarments until Spain was freed from the Moors. "Wheatear" is not derived from "wheat" or any sense of "ear", but is a 16th-century linguistic corruption of "white" and "arse", referring to the prominent white rump found in most species. The genus name Oenanthe is derived from the Ancient Greek oenos (οίνος) "wine" and anthos (ανθός) "flower". It refers to the northern wheatear's return to Greece in the spring just as the grapevines blossom.
At a length of it is rather larger and also paler in colour than the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe). The beak is longer than that bird and the ear-coverts are paler but otherwise the birds are very similar in appearance and could be confused. The plumage is moulted twice a year, there being a complete moult in late summer and a partial moult of the body feathers in mid-winter.
In the breeding season the isabelline wheatear is found in open country, barren tracts of land, arid regions, steppes, high plateaux and on the lower slopes of hills. In its winter quarters it occupies similar habitats in semi-arid regions, open country with sparse scrub and the borders of cultivated areas, showing a particular liking for sandy ground. The breeding season starts at the end of March in Turkey but does not commence until May in Central Asia. There are probably two broods in the southern parts of the range.