Buffy-brown, head and underparts more or less suffused pinkish-vinous, narrow white-bordered black collar on hindneck.

Male: Forehead is pale soft grey. The top of the head to the nape is greyish-brown suffused with pink-vinous. Black feathers with dove-grey tips form a black "collar" with gray border around the lower neck. Mantle, scapulars, inner wing-coverts and back to uppertail-coverts are pale grey-brown. The outer wing-coverts are greyer, forming a wing-panel. The primary coverts are darker blackish-grey, frosted with paler grey centrally. Flight feathers are blackish with narrow buff fringes. The uppertail is grey-brown in the center and the outer feathers are grey. The coloring graduates from dark grey to almost white from base to tip. Chin and throat are creamy-white. Ear-coverts to the belly is a dull vinous, variably suffused grey, with darker brownish-grey on the flight feathers. The iris is dark reddish brown and the orbital skin is greyish-white. The bill is black, greyer on the base and cere. Feet are dull purplish-red.

Female: Coloration is very similar to the male but duller in tones and intensity.

Juvenile: Coloration is similar to the adult but paler. There is no black collar and the upperline is narrowly trimmed in buffs.

Other Names:

Europe east through Asia Minor to C. Asia, India, Burma, N. China and Japan. Continues to colonise Europe, N. Africa and the Americas. Prefers open, dry areas with low scrub and scattered trees.

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