Last month's mystery bird (plate 310, repeated here) is clearly either a chat or a wheatear Oenanthe, but which one? At first glance, it is rather nondescript, but female and immature wheatears, which are essentially brown, were an identification problem recognised and dealt with in the paper 'Field identification of West Palearctic wheatears' (Brit. Birds 80: 137-157, 187-238). Most adult male wheat

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