
Photo: Shantanu Kuveskar · CC BY-SA 4.0 (May be cropped or resized)
Saxicola stejnegeri
Also known as: Saxicola maurus stejnegeri
AviList (2026) treats this bird as a subspecies, Saxicola maurus stejnegeri, of the Siberian Stonechat (Saxicola maurus), which is also on this site. IOC lists it as a separate species.
Habitat
Open country; breeds across northern and central Asia
Range
Breeds in the East Palearctic; winters in the Old World tropics
Stejneger's stonechat is the form of the Siberian (or Asian) stonechat that breeds across northern and central Asia and winters in the Old World tropics. The male in breeding plumage has black upperparts and head, a conspicuous white collar, shoulder patch and rump, and a small area of orange on the throat. Females are pale brown above with white neck patches and a pale, unstreaked rump (Wikipedia, account of the wider Siberian stonechat).
In winter males look more like females, with a pale eyebrow stripe, but the full white collar still separates them from similar chats. The male's call is a clicking sound like two pebbles knocked together, and the song is a high twittering. The account used here covers the wider Siberian stonechat, not Stejneger's alone (Wikipedia, general species account).