The blackstart (Oenanthe melanura) is a chat found in desert regions in North Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. It is resident throughout its range. The blackstart is 14 cm long and is named for its black tail, which is frequently fanned; the rest of its plumage is bluish-grey or grey-brown (North African races being browner, Middle Eastern races bluer). The sexes are similar. The song is a clear melancholy whistle: CHURlee...TRUloo...CHURlee...TRUlur..., with short phrases from the song used as a call. The habitats of blackstarts are rocky deserts and mountain slopes; they nest in rock crevices lay 3–4 eggs. They feed on insects, taken mainly on the ground. The blackstart is a confident species, unafraid of people. Taxonomy The first formal description of the blackstart was by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1824 under the binomial name Saxicola melanura. The blackstart was included as the type species in the genus Cercomela introduced by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1856. Molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2010 and 2012 found that the genus Cercomela was polyphyletic with five species, including the blackstart, phylogenetically nested within the genus Oenanthe. As part of a reorganization of the species to create monotypic genera, the blackstart was assigned to the genus Oenanthe. The specific epithet melanura is from the classical Greek melanouros meaning "with a black tail" from melas "black" and oura "tail". There are 6 subspecies: O. m. melanura (Temminck, 1824) – northeast Egypt to Israel, Jordan and central Saudi Arabia O. m. neumanni (Ripley, 1952) – southwest Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman O. m. lypura (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) – north-central Sudan to Eritrea O. m. aussae (Thesiger & Meynell, 1934) – northeast Ethiopia, Djibouti and north Somalia O. m. airensis (Hartert, 1921) – north Niger to central Sudan O. m. ultima (Bates, 1933) – east Mali and west Niger The subspecies differ slightly in the colour of their plumage. Description The blackstart is around in length with a wingspan of and a weight of around . The nominate race O. m. melanura has blueish ash-grey upperparts with darker wings and a black rump and tail. The belly and under-wings are greyish white; the bill and legs are black. The sexes are similar. The North African subspecies O. m. lypura and O. m. airensis are browner than the nominate. Distribution and habitat In Egypt, the blackstart is common in the