Citrine Wagtail

Citrine Wagtail
Male Weigold's Citrine Wagtail (M. c. calcarata) in breeding plumage Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur (Rajasthan, India)
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Motacillidae
Genus:	Motacilla
Species:	M. citreola
Binomial name
Motacilla citreola Pallas, 1776
Synonyms
Budytes citreola (Pallas, 1776)

The Citrine Wagtail or Yellow-headed Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) is a small songbird in the family Motacillidae. The term citrine refers to its yellowish colouration. Its systematics, phylogeny and taxonomy are subject of considerable debate in the early 21st century. This is because this bird forms a cryptic species complex with the Yellow Wagtail (M. flava). Which of the many taxa in this group should properly refer to which population is unlikely to be resolved in the immediate future.^[1]

Female in breeding plumage
Narenderpur near Kolkata (West Bengal, India)

It is a slender, 15.5–17 cm long bird, with the long, constantly wagging tail characteristic of the genus Motacilla. The adult male in breeding plumage is basically grey or black above, with white on the remiges, and bright yellow below and on the entire head except for the black nape. In winter plumage, its yellow underparts may be diluted by white, and the head is brownish with a yellowish supercilium. Females look generally like washed-out versions of males in winter plumage.

This species breeds in north central Asia in wet meadows and tundra. It migrates in winter to south Asia, often to highland areas. Its range is expanding westwards, and it is a rare but increasing vagrant to western Europe. Vagrants seem to extend the migration rather than straying en route; in Bhutan for example, though along one of the species' migration flyways, the Citrine Wagtail has been recorded as an extremely rare passer-by rather than staying even for a few days or weeks^[2].

It is an insectivorous bird of open country near water, such as wet meadows and bogs, and nests on the ground, laying 4-5 speckled eggs.

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  Juvenile in Kolkata (West Bengal, India)

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  Immature in first-winter plumage
  Joka, Kolkata (West Bengal, India)

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  Wintering bird in Kolkata (West Bengal, India)

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  Wintering bird in Ras al Khor Bird Sanctuary (Dubai, UAE)

Footnotes

1. ^ Voelker (2002)
2. ^ Inskipp et al. (2000)

References

Media related to Motacilla citreola at Wikimedia Commons

• BirdLife International (BLI) (2008). Motacilla citreola. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 12 May 2009.
• Inskipp, Carol; Inskipp, Tim & Sherub (2000): The ornithological importance of Thrumshingla National Park, Bhutan. Forktail 14: 147-162. PDF fulltext
• Voelker, Gary (2002): Systematics and historical biogeography of wagtails: Dispersal versus vicariance revisited. Condor 104(4): 725–739. [English with Spanish abstract] DOI: 10.1650/0010-5422(2002)104[0725:SAHBOW]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract