White Wagtail

Few small birds match the white wagtail for sheer range. It breeds across virtually all of Europe, from Iceland, Ireland and Portugal to the Urals, and on through Central Asia, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan. It also breeds in Morocco, in southeastern Greenland and, in small numbers, on the Bering Strait coast of western Alaska, the only place it nests in the Americas. It prefers open, flat ground near water: riverbanks, gravel bars, lake edges, wet meadows and flooded fields. It is just as much at home on farmland, roadsides, parking lots and in town centers, and in the mountains of Central Asia and the Himalayas it breeds along streams up to high altitudes. Most birds from northern and eastern Europe and Siberia head south between August and October. European birds winter around the Mediterranean and across the Sahel of Africa, from Senegal to Ethiopia, while Asian birds winter in the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and southern China. Populations in Britain, Ireland, Iberia, the Mediterranean and southern Japan tend to stay put year round, moving only short distances in hard weather.

The white wagtail is divided into about nine subspecies, and some look different enough to have their own common names. The nominate white wagtail of continental Europe and western Asia has a pale grey back, white face and black cap and bib. In Britain and Ireland lives the pied wagtail, whose breeding males have a black back and rump, making it look almost entirely black and white. In the Russian Far East and Japan lives the black backed wagtail (lugens), with a black back and a black line through the eye, and in Mongolia, eastern China, Korea and Taiwan the Amur wagtail (leucopsis), with a black back and an all white face. The East Siberian wagtail (ocularis) is the form that breeds in western Alaska. Farther south are the masked wagtail (personata) of Central Asia, with a mostly black head and a white mask, the Himalayan wagtail (alboides), the Baikal wagtail (baicalensis) of southern Siberia, and the Moroccan wagtail (subpersonata), a resident of Morocco with extra black on the face. Females and winter birds are duller, with grey instead of black on the back, which makes some forms hard to separate outside the breeding season. The large pied wagtail of India is a different species, not a form of the white wagtail.

Insects make up the core of the white wagtail's diet throughout the year. It takes a wide variety of prey, including flies, midges, beetles, ants, mayflies and small aquatic invertebrates picked from the surface of shallow water or wet mud. Rather than perching and waiting, it hunts entirely on foot, sprinting across open ground in short bursts and snapping up prey with quick, precise movements of the bill. It will also launch brief aerial chases to catch insects on the wing. Along riverbanks and lake margins, it works the waterline closely, making the most of the insects that gather there. In winter quarters across Africa and South Asia, it often feeds in flocks alongside other wagtail species, taking advantage of insects disturbed by grazing animals or agricultural machinery.

The constant pumping of its tail up and down is the white wagtail's most recognizable trait, and it does this whether walking, standing or perched on a rock or rooftop. The exact reason for this behavior is still debated among researchers, but it may help flush insects from the ground or signal alertness to other birds. On the move, it covers ground with a brisk, purposeful walk rather than a hop, and its flight follows a distinctive undulating path with each dip accompanied by a sharp call. It is territorial during the breeding season, with males defending patches of riverbank or shoreline vigorously. Outside the breeding season, white wagtails are more sociable and often roost in large communal groups, sometimes numbering in the thousands, in reedbeds, trees or on warm urban structures such as supermarket rooftops, greenhouses and even the trees and buildings of airports.

Breeding begins in April across most of the range and can extend into July, with many pairs raising two broods in a single season. The nest is a cup of grass, moss and plant stems, lined with hair and feathers, tucked into a cavity in a rock face, stone wall, road bank or building. White wagtails are notably comfortable nesting inside or very close to human structures, and nests have been recorded in drainpipes, letter boxes and farm machinery. The female lays between five and six eggs on average, and incubation lasts around thirteen days. Both parents share feeding duties, making repeated trips to the nest with insects. Chicks leave the nest at about fourteen days old but continue to be fed by the adults for a short time after fledging.

The white wagtail, baltā cielava in Latvian, is the national bird of Latvia. It was chosen in 1960, and the choice reflects how closely the bird is woven into Latvian culture. It appears again and again in Latvian folk songs, the dainas, where it stands for hard work and diligence, always busy, always on the move, and its return in April is one of the classic signs that spring has come to the Baltic. The bird fits the country well. It breeds throughout Latvia, along the Daugava, Gauja and other rivers, around lakes, in farmyards and in towns, nesting in woodpiles, barns, stone walls and under roofs. Like most of the population in the Baltic states, Latvian wagtails migrate in autumn, leaving in September and October for wintering grounds around the Mediterranean and in Africa. The white wagtail sits alongside Latvia's other natural symbols, the two spot ladybird as national insect and the oak and linden as national trees, and it is a familiar figure in Latvian nature education and on the country's postage stamps.

The white wagtail is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. With an estimated 135 to 221 million mature individuals and a stable trend, it is one of the most numerous small birds in the world. Europe alone holds about 17 to 28 million breeding pairs. That said, local declines have been recorded in some intensively farmed areas, where the loss of wetland edges, farm ponds and grazing livestock, the heavy use of pesticides and the general fall in insect numbers have all reduced the food available to birds that hunt insects on the ground. In some countries, including Britain, monitoring schemes have shown moderate declines over recent decades. Its willingness to nest in and around buildings has helped it keep a presence even in heavily urbanized landscapes, and its habit of feeding on lawns, roofs and parking lots means it benefits from places many other birds avoid. No targeted conservation measures are needed, but it is a useful indicator of the health of farmland and river habitats, and regional monitoring remains worthwhile.