Saxicola dacotiae

The Canary Islands stonechat (Saxicola dacotiae), also known as the Fuerteventura stonechat or Fuerteventura chat, and formerly known as the Canary Islands chat due to its once widespread distribution on the Canary Islands. It is a sedentary resident found only on the island of Fuerteventura where it is known as the Caldereta. The Canary Islands stonechat is a small passerine bird that was classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher in the Muscicapidae. It, and similar small European species, are often called chats. It was included in the 'common stonechat' (Saxicola torquata), but it is quite distinct; it is likely to be an insular derivative of ancestral European stonechats that colonised the islands some 1-2 mya, during the Early Pleistocene (Wink et al. 2002). The Canary Islands stonechat is intermediate in appearance between the European stonechat and the whinchat; its body size and shape reminiscent of a lithe European robin. Its upperparts are generally coloured as the whinchat, but more contrasting, dark brown with a blackish head and back streaks. It has a purer white supercilium reaching behind the eye and white neck sides, and a light orangey-chestnut breast becoming duller and paler on the underside towards the whitish belly. The rump and tail are dark, the latter with a white pattern visible in flight. There is also a white wing band. The female is similar to a washed-out version of the male, with a brown, black-streaked head and no white neck patches.