It was later treated as a subspecies of the Kurdish wheatear (O. xanthoprymna) after birds with an appearance intermediate between the two ("O. x. cummingi") were found, suggesting that they could interbreed.

[6] Red-tailed wheatears in the eastern part of the range are slightly paler and are sometimes regarded as a separate subspecies, O. c. kingi.

Its breeding range extends from north-east Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan eastwards through Iran to Afghanistan, southern Tajikistan and western Pakistan.

It migrates south to winter in the Arabian Peninsula, Eritrea, southern parts of Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and north-west India.

It will pick food from vegetation, dig with its bill for beetle larvae and launch attacks from an exposed perch on a rock or stone.