The blackstart (Oenanthe melanura) is a chat found in desert regions in North Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula.

The habitats of blackstarts are rocky deserts and mountain slopes; they nest in rock crevices lay 3–4 eggs.

The first formal description of the blackstart was by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1824 under the binomial name Saxicola melanura.

[2]: 101–102 [3] The blackstart was included as the type species in the genus Cercomela introduced by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1856.

The nominate race O. m. melanura has blueish ash-grey upperparts with darker wings and a black rump and tail.

[11] A study conducted in Israel on the west shore of the Dead Sea found that a major cause of nest failure was the predation of the eggs by Golden and Cairo spiny mice.