Masked Wagtail: A New Species of Rare Bird in Britain

The first sighting of a Masked Wagtail, Motacilla alba personata, was reported in the village of Camrose, near Haverfordwest in Wales during November 2016 (Western Telegraph - https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/14940254.first-masked-wagtail-in-the-uk-spotted-in-camrose-pembrokeshire/ ). 

Masked Wagtails are a sub-species of White Wagtails and normally found in Iran and Afganistan in Central Asia 

The British Birds Rarities Committee added the Masked Wagtail the British List of rare birds in 2018.

Adults have a black head with a small white mask, black crescent on the breast and white belly. The mantle of the male is black and is grey in the female.

Masked Wagtails are common breeding birds in Central Asia in areas such as northern Iran, southern Russia, north-eastern China, India, northern Pakistan, Kashmir, western Mongolia the Himilayas in Central Asia.

They spend the winter Iran and eastern Saudi Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent (Birds of Oman - http://www.birdsoman.com/Birds/118-Pipits/MaskedWagtail/MaskedWagtail.htm ).

The main diet of the Masked Wagtail is a wide variety of insects and their larvae which are caught in the air or the ground.

Breeding takes place along rocky rivers and streams, usually on higher ground in mountains and deserts. Pairs are monogamous and build their nests in cavities in rocky places, among stones, riverbanks, under bridges and holes in walls.

Three and seven eggs are laid between April and July and hatch after 2 weeks. The young learn to fly after 14 to 17 days. Both parents look after the young and normally rear two broods a year.

Masked Wagtails differ from their cousins, White Wagtails, as the female builds a nest alone for the second brood while the male tends to the young from the first brood.

They leave for their wintering grounds in the autumn, or between mid-August and mid-September.

Wintering Masked Wagtails prefer to live around open areas of water although they forage for food on lawns, ploughed fields, pastures, around villages in the countryside and cities. Some join flocks of White Wagtails during the winter.

A rare sighting of a Masked Wagtail was reported in Kuwait in 2012 and only the second of its kind in the country.

A Masked Wagtail was also recorded along the Wenyu River also in 2012 and is the only second sighting of these birds in Beijing in China (Birding Beijing - https://birdingbeijing.com/tag/white-wagtail/).

Norway played host to a Masked Wagtail between November 2003 and April 2004.  A male Masked Wagtail was seen in Sweden in April 2006.

Sadly, there have no further sightings of Masked Wagtails in Britain since 2016.

For more information on the birds of the gardens and countryside of Britain and Ireland, please visit

http://bird4u.mzzhost.com/index.html