Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Wagtail Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The genus Motacilla was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae . [ 1 ] The type species is the white wagtail . [ 2 ]
The mountain wagtail normally prefers small rivers and streams in hill country, especially stretches where there are waterfalls and flat rocks immersed in shallow water and where hill slopes are clothed in forest, woodland or dense scrub. It may also be seen along forest paths, tracks and roads and occasionally in gardens. [4]
The nest is situated in a recess within a steep bank, tree, or bush, or in a man-made location such as a hole in a wall, a pot plant, or a bridge. It breeds all year round but, egg-laying peaks from July until December (mid-winter to early summer). Between one and five eggs are laid, which both parents take turns incubating for 13–15 days.
The willie wagtail (also spelt willy wagtail), scientific name Rhipidura leucophrys, is a passerine bird native to Australia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Eastern Indonesia. It is a common and familiar bird throughout much of its range, living in most habitats apart from thick forest.
In total, there are between 9 and 11 subspecies of M. alba; in Ireland and Great Britain, the black-backed subspecies known as the pied wagtail (M. a. yarrellii) predominates. The white wagtail is an insectivorous bird of open country, often near habitation and water. [2] It prefers bare areas for feeding, where it can see and pursue its prey.
The Japanese wagtail is about 20 cm long. The sexes look similar; they have white underparts and black upperparts, throats, and backs. Their supercilia are also white. They have black beaks and dark grey legs and feet. The plumage of a juvenile is greyer than that of an adult. [2]
The wagtails, longclaws, and pipits are a family, Motacillidae, of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Around 70 species occur in five genera.The longclaws are entirely restricted to the Afrotropics, and the wagtails are predominantly found in Europe, Africa, and Asia, with two species migrating and breeding in Alaska.
The binomial name of the grey wagtail Motacilla cinerea was introduced by Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 publication Ornithologia Britannica. [2] [3] Motacilla is the Latin name for the pied wagtail; although actually a diminutive of motare, "to move about", from medieval times it led to the misunderstanding of cilla as "tail".