The Wheatear, in Maltese Kuda, is another common spring visitor that is rather common from March to May and from August to November. It is occasionally recorded in winter and in June.

Migrants returning to Europe may start appearing as early as mid-February. Wheatears were formerly called Kuda Bianca, a reference to the amount of white on their tails. This is a classic name of a species that was undoubtedly coined from observing the birds’ characteristics. The same can be said for its English name, which is not derived from ‘wheat’ and ‘ear’, but it is a 16th-century linguistic corruption of old English huit ares (white arse), referring to the prominent white rump found in most species of Wheatear.

There are several species of Wheatears that appear in Malta, including the Isabelline Wheatear, which is more scarce but several are recorded annually, and the Black-eared Wheatear. The Isabelline Wheatear is a scarce but regular spring migrant, appearing from mid-March to mid-April, and rare in autumn, when it appears from August to late September. Most birds are seen in March. The in autumn was recorded for the first time in Malta by Mark Beaman, An English bird watcher who was in Malta and who observed a bird at Ras il-Pellegrin on 25 March 1970. Mr Beaman later also identified another bird that had been shot at Salina on 13 April 1969 and which was in a private collection of stuffed birds. It is obvious that this species had been occurring regularly before but was overlooked or misidentified.

The Black-eared Wheatear is a scarce spring and autumn migrant, appearing from mid-March to mid-May, occasionally in June. It appears in smaller numbers in autumn, from August to mid-October. A pair of Black-eared Wheatears actually bred July 1982 and the male was noted feeding three fledged young. Sadly, the female was found dead and had evidence of gunshot.

Wheatears are known to travel distances of over 30,000 km a year.  Ecologist and writer Philip Watson captures the essence of this bird really well when he said: “What’s really remarkable about this bouncy bird is its migration. Weighing about 30 grams, this little bag of feathers, fat, blood and bones, with a brain the size of a thumbnail, finds its way from summer sites in Siberia to winter grounds in Central Africa – a round trip of about 30,000 km.”

It is indeed incomprehensible to us how such a small bird can fly 15,000 km in a short span of time, spend winter in Central Africa, and then cross the Sahara again, then the Mediterranean Sea, and onwards to its breeding ground in the north, in less than a month!