Pied Wheatear (Oenanthe pleschanka)

Very rare vagrant* in open stony habitats, where it perches on stones, clods and the like, and flies low over the ground. It has a habit of often oscillating the tail up and down. It feeds on small ground insects. Pied Wheatear breeds in Central Palearctic and winters in East Africa to Middle East. 

*G.M. Henry in 16 November 1943 observed an exhausted female bird in its winter plumage in a Colombo garden probably after arriving presumably from India. He has confirmed his identification after comparing his notes and sketches he had taken during many minutes of his observations with specimens at the British Natural History Museum. (Henry G.M. 1998: 380) There is another sight record of Pied Wheatear on passage between Sri Lanka and Maldives islands (Repley S.D. 1982: 471). 

Single female bird reported by Ravi Dharshana with photographic evidence on 9th January of 2025 at Port City - Colombo is probably the third record of Pied Wheatear in Sri Lanka.