No. 14. Wagtails




There are four species of wagtail that are resident or migratory visitors to Cyprus. These are the Pied (or White) Wagtail, the Yellow Wagtail, the Citrine Wagtail, and the Grey Wagtail. This relatively small group exhibits a surprisingly wide variation in the appearance of the individual birds. The changes can result from differences in the maturity of the birds over their first year of life, or  from variations within the races that exist, and apparently interbreed, within each species.


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The Pied Wagtail is resident for most of the  year in the UK but is a winter visitor in Cyprus, typically seen between the months of August to  May. During spring and summer in the UK the Pied Wagtails are largely solitary, pairing up to breed but rarely seen in groups, but come the autumn they become much more sociable, gathering in large flocks to roost and/or prepare for migration. All Pied/White Wagtails are grey and white or black and white, and all have a distinctive black bib. As a very general rule the Pied Wagtail tends to have a little more black in its plumage than the White Wagtail, though the two sub-species and the age of the individual can equally give colour variations.


Adult White Wagtail. Note the distinctive black bib



White Wagtail insect hunting in typical wagtail environment


Typical colouration of adult White Wagtail

During early September this year I noticed that flocks of Yellow Wagtails were present on the agricultural fields at Mandria, so they  had clearly started their southerly migrations.  Open land and ploughed fields are favourite feeding locations for Yellow Wagtails, but they can be seen anywhere that has good populations of insects or grubs. During the periods March to mid-May the spring migration gives hundreds of sightings, and then the return autumn movement occurs generally between August and October. Flocks of wagtails can be very large.


Yellow Wagtail in rainwater pool



Yellow Wagtail var. flava



Yellow Wagtail var. dombrowskii

The Yellow Wagtail has at least 6 sub-species (races/variants) within its species (some reports apparently estimate that there may be up to 18 races), and the colour differences can be marked, from almost no yellow colouration at all to an extremely intense yellow front and jet black head colour. The latter colouration is recognised as the 'feldegg' sub-species, pictured below, while the 'flava" sub-species (photo above) is distinctly paler yellow with a grey head.



Yellow Wagtail var. feldegg - the most brightly coloured of the variants

The Citrine Wagtail is the least commonly seen of the wagtails in Cyprus, usually only during the spring and autumn migrations, as is the Grey Wagtail. The juvenile Citrine Wagtail is almost plain grey above with some slight yellow colouration on the face but, once mature, the colour of its head and front can vary from pale yellow to very deep yellow in the breeding male.



Citrine Wagtail, pale variant, feeding in reedbed


Adult Citrine Wagtail chasing dragonflies

The Grey Wagtail is, not surprisingly, mainly grey with a buff breast, but it always has a yellow rump, which may be quite pale or very vivid. In summer the male can have quite a bright yellow front but with a black bib at the throat. It is most commonly seen by flowing rivers or by standing water, and generally only during the autumn migration. It has the longest tail of all the wagtails and, like all the other species, regularly wags its tail up and down.



Grey Wagtail feeding on insects in muddy pool


Grey Wagtail  - note the long tail and distinctive yellow rump


The Wagtails are a complex group of species and the variations in the colours of individuals frequently makes identification in the field very difficult, so the help of good photographs is invaluable for later confirmation.




 All photos and text by Trevor Fordham  
December 20 2019

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