Pied Bush Chat

The pied bush chat is a small, dumpy chat about 13cm long with an upright stance, slightly smaller than the Siberian stonechat. The male is black except for a white rump, wing patch and lower belly, with a dark eye and black bill and legs; the extent of white varies among populations. The female is drab brown and slightly streaked, and juveniles look scaly below. About sixteen subspecies are recognised, many of them on islands (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a familiar bird of countryside, open scrub and grassland, perching on the tops of short thorn trees and shrubs to watch for insects, which it takes mainly from the ground. It nests in cavities in stone walls or holes in banks, lining the nest with grass and animal hair. Like other chats it is now placed among the Old World flycatchers. SoIB 2023 lists it as resident in India with movements within the country and a very large range, finds its trends stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).