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Taxonomic note
Oenanthe lugens (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) was previously split as O. lugens and O. lugentoides following AERC TAC (2003); Cramp et al. (1977-1994); Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993). Prior to 1994 O. lugubris was also recognised as separate to O. lugens (Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993) but these taxa were lumped following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993). Now they are once again recognised as three species: O. lugens, O. lugubris and O. lugentoides for reasons summarised by Schweizer and Burri (2019) (see those species for details). Has been treated as conspecific with O. finschii and hybridization between them recently recorded (Shirihai 2012). Shirihai and Svensson (2018) split O. lugens into the relatively distinctive North African form halophila (‘Maghreb Wheatear’) and the relatively distinct form warriae (‘Basalt Wheatear’), but Schweizer and Burri (2019) point out that halophila nests between forms persica and lugens, and that warriae is genetically very close to lugens. Name syenitica, previously applied erroneously to NW African subspecies of O. leucura, now known to represent member of present species, considered synonymous with nominate subspecies by some authorities (Dickinson and Christidis 2014), but far more likely to be either a senior synonym of warriae or an independent (perhaps extinct) taxon (Shirihai et al. 2014). Four subspecies recognized.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2022. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip.

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is described as generally locally common to abundant in north Africa, although scarce in Morocco and Tunisia and common in Israel (where there may be an estimated few thousand pairs) and north-eastern and eastern Africa (del Hoyo et al. 2005, Collar 2020).

Trend justification: The population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or substantial threats.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Mourning Wheatear Oenanthe lugens. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/mourning-wheatear-oenanthe-lugens on 03/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 03/12/2024.