The common name and scientific name commemorate the German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839 – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig).

It measures 14 cm long, with 25-27 wingspan, and weigh 21-32 g.[5] In summer the male Finsch's wheatear is a white and black bird.

The white crown, central back and belly contrast with the black face, throat and wings.

The tail and rump are white, with an inverted black T giving a pattern like eastern black-eared wheatear, but with a uniformly wide terminal band.

Finsch's wheatear breeds in semi-desert and stony hillsides from Turkey east to Afghanistan and western Pakistan.