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Western Yellow Wagtail

Motacilla flava

Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Wagtails and Pipits
Western Yellow Wagtail, photographed by Psubraty

Photo: Psubraty · Pixabay · Pixabay Content License (licence)

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Call and song

About the Western Yellow Wagtail

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.”

Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made

Where it has been recorded

Recorded in 143 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.

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