Western Yellow Wagtail
Motacilla flava
Widespread wagtail, favoring wet meadows, marshland, grassy and muddy lakeshores. Occurs in fields and often near livestock during migration. Like other wagtails, walks on ground and pumps its long, white-sided tail up and down. Plumage highly variable, but breeding male wholly bright yellow below, with greenish back. Male head pattern varies regionally: in U.K. has greenish head with yellow eyebrow; in northern Europe head slaty gray overall; in central and southwest Europe head blue-gray with white eyebrow; striking white-headed birds in Mongolia and northwestern China. Individuals of several subspecies may winter together. Female and nonbreeding plumages drabber and paler, with ghosting of male patterns. Songs and calls vary between subspecies, but most give some form of buzzy “dzeerdzeer” or downslurrd “tzree.”
Taxonomy
Motacilla is the Latin name for the wagtail; although actually a diminutive of motare, " to move about", from medieval times it led to the misunderstanding of cilla as "tail". The specific flava is Latin for golden-yellow.<p>This species' systematics and phylogeny is extremely confusing. Dozens of subspecies have been described at one time or another, and some 15-20 are currently considered valid depending on which author reviews them. In addition, the citrine wagtail (M. citreola) forms a cryptic species complex with this bird;[page needed] both taxa as conventionally delimited are paraphyletic in respect to each other. The populations of the Beringian region are sometimes separated as eastern yellow wagtail (M. tschutschensis).<p>Colouration refers to males except when noted.<p>The nominate blue-headed wagtail and yellow wagtail form a narrow hybrid zone in northern France. Birds from this zone vary in appearance, but one type, which resembles nominate blue-headed wagtail (except that the blue tones to the head are paler and more mauve and the white of the head is more extensive, particularly on the throat, ear-coverts, and supercilium) is colloquially referred to as Channel wagtail.
- Scientific name
- Motacilla flava
- Authority
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Motacillidae
- Genus
- Motacilla
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL : widespread
- Non-breeding range
- OR, AF
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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