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Trees- ShrubsBlue-headed Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava flava)
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The Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava flava) is a subspecies of the Yellow Wagtail. It has blue-grey cheeks and crown, a long white eye-stripe (supercilium), and a white stripe between the cheeks and the yellow throat (1). All adult male Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails have bright yellow underparts, a greenish-grey back, wings with two pale wingbars, a dark tail with white outer feathers, and long black legs (2) (3). The female’s plumage is duller and less yellow. Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails measure 17 cm in height and weigh between 16 and 22 g (4). In autumn, when many of the birds are juveniles, the different subspecies are difficult distinguish (5).
The Yellow Wagtail species (Motacilla flava) has at least eight geographical subspecies in Europe, in which males’ head patterns vary in appearance and with hybridisation between subspecies, resulting in intermediate forms of head patterns (2) (3). One of the other subspecies, the Black-headed Yellow Wagtail (M. f. feldegg), is a common breeder in Greece both on mainland and islands.
In flight, the Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail makes a clear whistling “psiit” call (5). The song is brief and modest, a repetition of chirping phrases and call notes (1).
Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails are social birds, forming small flocks composed of different races (5) (1). In autumn, flocks of Yellow Wagtails follow cattle, sheep, horses and goats on damp pastures and fields, taking insects disturbed from the grass (1) (5). In their wintering grounds, they follow herds of the large mammals of African plains, which flush out insects in their path (1) (6). They can be seen foraging on the ground, skipping after insect prey (1).
Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails often sing in display posture, with their chests puffed out (6). Their flight is composed of a series of quick wing beats followed by long, sweeping, undulating bounds (5).
Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails inhabit wet areas such as marsh fringes, damp meadows, lake and river sides, creeks, bogs, coastal salt marshes, rice fields, and waste water treatment areas (7) (4). On autumn migration they can be seen in ploughed fields, golf courses, and hilly or mountainous pastures (2) (5).
Yellow Wagtails breed from May to July (1). The female makes a cup-shaped nest of grass lined with hair on the ground, usually in the shelter of a plant (4). There are two clutches of five or six eggs, incubated by the female for 13 days. The chicks are reared by both parents and become fledglings after two weeks (4). They can breed at the age of one year (4).
Europe, which accounts for less than half of its global breeding range, has a very large breeding population of Yellow Wagtails, estimated at more than 7.9 million pairs (8). In Greece, there are an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 breeding pairs of Yellow Wagtails (8). The Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail breeds mainly in continental Europe and southern Scandinavia (9). It is a passage migrant in Greece (5). The species as whole has a global population estimated 50 million to 150 million individuals (8). Beyond Europe, they are also native to the United States, Central Asia and China, and to the Pacific regions of Micronesia and Palau (7).
Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails pass through Greece from late-March to mid-May, making their way further north to the Balkans (5). They migrate south in late-August to late-September, for their wintering grounds which are located at all latitudes in sub-Saharan Africa (from the Sudan to South Africa) (5) (6).
Yellow Wagtails spend much of their time on the ground foraging for insects and other invertebrates; they will also eat small seeds (1) (4). Chicks are fed mainly non flies (Diptera). One example of fly prey is the Common Green Colonel Fly (Oplodontha viridula). It has a flattened body, a central black stripe on a bright metallic abdomen that varies in colour from orange, green, or white. They breed in water and are found among waterside vegetation (10).
Yellow Wagtails migrating south from Greece are common prey of Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae) colonies in Northeast Crete and in the Northern Sporades (5).
IUCN Red List = Least concern (7)
Description by Maite Guignard (2009)
(1) Hume. R. (2002) RSPB Complete Birds of Britain and Europe, Dorling Kindersley, London
(2) Mullarney. K., Svensson. L., Zetterstrom. D., and Grant. P.J. (1999) Collins Bird Guide, Harper Collins Publishers, London
(3) Sterry. P. (2000) Complete Mediterranean Wildlife, Harpers Collins Publishers, London
(4) Perrins. C. (1987) Collins New Generation Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, Collins, London
(5) Handrinos. G., and Akriotis. T. (1997) The Birds of Greece, Christopher Helm Ltd., London
(6) Moreau. R.E. (1952) The Place of Africa in the Palaearctic Migration System, The Journal of Animal Ecology, 21(2): 250-271
(7) IUCN (2009) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species [online] Available:
http://www.iucnredlist.org [date accessed: 06/07/2009]
(8) Bird Life International (2009) Species factsheet: Motacilla flava [online] Available: http://www.birdlife.org [date accessed: 06/07/2009]
(9) Jonsson. L. (1992) Birds of Europe, Christopher Helm Ltd., London
(10) Chinery. M. (2007) Insects of Britain and Western Europe, Domino Books, A & C Black Publishers, London
