Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE SONG BIRDS

THE WAGTAILS AND PIPITS

The Typical Wagtails

(Motacilla), which range widely throughout the Old World with the exception of Australia and Polynesia (two species are accidental or occasional in Greenland and Alaska, respectively), are usually pied, black, gray, and white in plumage, though some are partially bright yellow; all are conspicuously devoid of streaks, spots, or mottlings. The sexes are nearly or quite alike, though there are often striking differences between the summer and winter plumage. As might be presumed, they take their common name from their habit of vibrating the body and tail, which they do constantly. The Pied Wagtail (M. lugubris) of Great Britain and western Europe frequents gardens and meadows, and, according to Mr. Hudson's delightful account, is one of the creatures that seem never to be in the same mind for two moments in succession.”He runs, then stands, and shakes his tail, for two or three moments he searches for food; then chases an insect, and is still again, waiting for a new impulse to move him: suddenly he flies away, not straight as if with an object in view, but with a curving, dipping, erratic flight, governed seemingly by no will, and just as suddenly alighting again, when he is once more seen standing still and shaking his tail. The call note, a sharp chirp of two syllables, is emitted once or twice during flight. The song is a loud, hurried warble, uttered on the wing as the bird hovers at a moderate height from the ground. But the Pied Wagtail has another way of singing, especially in early spring: this is a warble so low that at a distance of fifteen yards it is but just audible, and is uttered continuously for two or three minutes at a stretch.”The nesting operations commence in April or early May; the nest, which is composed of grasses, moss, fine roots, etc. and lined with wool, feathers, or hair, being placed in a hole in a bank or rock, or in an old wall or stone heap; the four or five eggs are bluish white spotted with grayish brown. In summer the plumage of this species is variegated with black and white, the back, shoulders, chin, throat, and neck being black, while in winter the back and scapulars are grayish ash, and the chin and throat white, the latter with gorget of black; the length is about seven and a half inches. Closely allied is the Japanese Pied Wagtail (M. lugens) of eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, and Japan, the White-faced Wagtail (M. leucopsis) of eastern Siberia, the Himalayas, and China, and the White Wagtail (M. alba) of Europe generally, north to Ireland and occasionally Greenland, which may be known by the gray upper parts and white forehead, sides of head, neck, and abdomen.

 

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