Latin Etymology: Motacilla ("wagtail") tschutschensis ("of the Chukhotsi penninsula, Siberia")
Partially moulted Eastern Yellow Wagtail (subspecies M. t. macronyx) at Phnom Krom, Cambodia - February 2019
Featured Subspecies: Motacilla tschitschensis macronyx
Weight: 16-20g / Length: 15-16cm / Wingspan: ?
ABSENT FROM UK / IUCN Red List: Least Concern
Wagtails are always a pleasant sight, with their distinctive markings and characterful movement, it's never not nice to see one. Taxonomically though, they are frequently a vexatious group, with wildly varying patternatation on different races and subspecies giving the appearance that they should be entirely different species. In the case of the Yellow Wagtail, a split separated them into Eastern and Western species, but even within these delineated groups there is a lot of variety, with multiple subspecies turning up at different locations. In this case, the lack of a supercillium is, as far as I can work out, a feature of the subspecies macronyx, which is the expected visitor for Cambodia.
Related Species:
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Motacillidae
Genus: Motacilla
SUBSPECIES: M. t. plexa, M. t. tschutschensis, M. t. taivana, M. t. macronyx
- Sighting Locations -
A locally Wintering species.
Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, IUCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto
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