It breeds in central and eastern Siberia, Japan, Korea, northeastern China, and eastern Mongolia, and migrates south to southern China and Indochina in winter.

[1] It is a small bird 11.5–13 cm long, very closely similar to the Siberian stonechat in both plumage and behaviour, differing in only small details, notably having a slightly broader-based bill 4.7–5.7 mm wide (4.0–4.9 mm wide in Siberian stonechat) and slightly less white on the rump.

[2] Vagrants have been reported west to Great Britain,[3] east to Alaska,[1] and south to Borneo.

[1] Amur stonechat was generally considered a subspecies of either common stonechat (as Saxicola torquatus stejnegeri[2]) or Siberian stonechat (as Saxicola maurus stejnegeri,[1]), but recent genetic evidence has shown that it is distinct, in a basal position in the common stonechat superspecies;[4] on which basis it is now accepted as a distinct species.

[5] The Latin binomial commemorates the Norwegian ornithologist Leonhard Hess Stejneger.