Eastern Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla tschutschensis)

OTHER NAMES: Yellow Wagtail
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 -

CAMBODIA - Khmer name: ខ្ទប់ដីពោះលឿង ("Yellow Covered Wagtail")

A locally Wintering species.

SINGAPORE / CAMBODIA 2019 TRIP - One at Phnom Krom

Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, IUCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto .

Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava)

OTHER NAMES: Yellow Wagtail

Latin Etymology: Motacilla ("wagtail") flava ("golden yellow")

 Adult Western Yellow Wagtail (subspecies M. f. flavissima) at Eyebrook Reservoir, Rutland - April 2026

Featured Subspecies: Motacilla flava flavissima
Weight: 16-22g  /  Length: 23-27cm  /  Wingspan: 23-27cm

UK RED LIST / IUCN Red List: Least Concern

The least common of the UK's three Wagtails, the Yellow Wagtail can prove a little elusive to see as it has more specific habitat requirements. I've personally had luck around September by lakes and reservoirs but their favourite habitat is cow fields by water where the cows churn up the ground to give the wagtails places to feed. Photographing them is marginally more difficult than the other two wagtails once you actually find them, as they are not quite so urbanised, but they still allow fairly close approach compared to most species.  The other unusual feature of the Yellow Wagtail is that of all the UK species, it has the most variation between the subspecies, with some of the many subspecies found across it's range looking like entirely different birds to one another.

Related Species:
Order:  Passeriformes
Family: Motacillidae
Genus: Motacilla
Subspecies: M.f. flava, M.f. flavissima, M.f. beema, M.f. leucocephala, M.f. cinereocapilla, M.f. iberiae, M.f. pygmaea, M.f. thunbergi, M.f. feldegg, M.f. melanogrisea, M.f. lutea  

- Sighting Locations -

UNITED KINGDOM - Local Summer breeding migrant (15,000 territories)

 - Seen at Rutland Water, Pitsford Reservoir and Nene Washes

Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, IUCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto

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