25-12-2016 ADOR CAMPO, VALENCIA - WHITE WAGTAIL (Motacilla alba)

The White Wagtail is a remarkable anthropophilic bird with its long tail and short wings and its colors. It used to be called vulgarly what is now known as a nod. Indeed, similar to its fellows, its long tail is often moved with vertical movements. Its plumage is completely black and white and various shades of gray. There are variations according to the subspecies, but still allow for identification. Here, we will be describing the western European subspecies alba. The nuptial adult has a black and white head (back of the crown, neck, back of the neck, chin and throat black, forehead and sides of the head and neck white). A black bib occupies the chest, in continuity with the black of the throat. The eye is dark and the beak is black. The coat, back and scapulars are plain gray. The wings are contrasted. The covers and tertiaries are blackish and edged and pointed with white, creating two clear bars in the middle of the wing. The tail is black and bordered externally by white. The belly and the under tail are white. The flanks are washed with medium gray. The legs are black. The sexual dimorphism is limited. The female has less pure blacks than the male and the limit between the black of the head and the gray of the coat is blurred. At the moment of the post-nuptial moult, the head lights up a lot. The black area is reduced and the throat whitens. The bird will result like this throughout winter until the next molt. The juvenile has a much less contrasted plumage. Dark gray partially occupies the parts which are black in the adult. The 9 subspecies are distinguished mainly in the breeding plumage by a different division of black and white in the head and chest and by a minor or major white presence in the wing. The male of the subspecies yarrellii of Britain and Ireland has a gleaming black coat on the back and soot gray flanks.

The White Wagtail occupies a wide range of open habitats, whether dry or preferably wet. Although it is not necessarily tied to water, it is often found near it.

The main condition is that the area should be clear, with easy access to the ground where the majority of its activity takes place. This is why it appreciates agricultural areas, the open edges of lakes, urban lawns, industrial wastelands, roadsides, dumps, etc. Another condition in its presence during the reproduction period is that it has available sites for its semi-cavernous nesting (various fissures). Before Man provided it in abundance, it had to find them mainly along the hydrographic network in the eroded banks, from whence probably its relation to water, and/or in the rocky environment. In the intervening season, one can find it in any open places, even in very deserted places through the irrigated or watered crops, the lagoon basins and other oases where it can find the insects which include its diet.