A tale of two wagtails

Pied wagtail

Do you ever find yourself looking at something that you think that you have seen many many times before and then you look more closely, and you see something new?

Wagtails come into my garden in the winter. Indeed the arrival of these little hyperactive monochrome birds, often accompanying the first flurry of snow, is confirmation for me that winter is starting to bite.

Notably they have evolved in recent years to forage on pavements and in car parks and gather in communal roosts in town centres. There is a famous tree in the middle of Bath's new Southgate shopping centre where several hundred gather each winter night. This has been going on for a few years now and they rest there quietly in the dark unseen by most passersby. These urban roosts must keep them just a little warmer than a solitary perch in the surrounding countryside.

Anyway, I am viewing my garden wagtails - who are busy chasing each other around - when I realise I am seeing two different plumages. Web-searches and bird book consultations follow and it turns out that the wagtails are complex little beasts. The classic black and white version - we call the pied wagtail (Motacilla alba -see above) is mainly British (although like all good Britains it does occasionally extend its range to the adjacent continent). It is one of a number of closely related 'sub-species' and the white wagtail with its paler back (see below) is another.
 

The grey back of a white wagtail.

White wagtail 

My old classic book - 'Complete birds of Britain and Europe' - suggest that the white wagtail (M. a. yarrellii) mainly stays in mainland Europe. However it seems to be sharing my lawn with its cousin, albeit with some squabbling.


And here a 'bonus' starling. Just because they are handsome and I am wondering how well the small flock that uses my garden in faring this winter. More about them another time.