Yellow Wagtail of Britain

Yellow Wagtails are summer visitors from West Africa who arrive in Britain d between April and May. Pairs breed in damp habitats and then return to their wintering grounds in the late summer.

Experts have estimated that three-quarters of the Yellow Wagtail population has been lost over the last fifty years. Their range in Britain has also declined and are now only found in southern and eastern England. The main factor in their decline is agricultural changes.

The Yellow Wagtail is an elegant bird with a medium-sized tail and the smallest of the European Wagtail species. The Motacilla flava flavissima race breeds in Britain and described as the “most yellow of yellow”. They are also found in the coastal areas of Holland and France.

“The male is a stunning bird with striking yellow underparts that extend up onto the face and greenish-yellow upperparts. Females and young birds are less brightly coloured and may be confused with other wagtail species” (BTO https://www.bto.org/understand…/species-focus/yellow-wagtail ).

Yellow Wagtails spend most of their time running or walking on the ground searching for small insects and invertebrates. Some of their prey is caught in the air.

They often forage for flies, beetles and other insects around livestock grazing in fields.

Yellow Wagtails start to arrive in Britain from West Africa in early April and peak numbers are reached at the beginning of May. The breeding season finishes in August and birds form flocks before returning to their wintering quarters in West Africa.

“Britain holds almost the entire world population of the distinctive race flavissima, so population changes in the UK are of global conservation significance” (BTO – Trends: please see below).

The British Trust for Ornithology have provided a map of the breeding distribution of Yellow Wagtails in Britain - https://app.bto.org/mapstore/StoreServlet?id=334

Pairs breed in a variety of damp habitats which include wet pastures and meadows, wetland fringes, marshes and riverbanks. Arable fields, particularly those with potatoes, peas, beans and oil-seed rape, have been increasingly used as nest sites in recent years.

The nest is made of grasses lined with finer materials such as wool and fur in a hollow on the ground.

The female lays five or six eggs which take 13 days to incubate. The young learn to fly after 16 days. Both parents care for their young and may return to West Africa as a family.

The Yellow Wagtail, Motacilla flava, is classified of Least Concern by IUCN.

Europe accounts for approximately 30% of the global range of the Yellow Wagtail. The European population of Yellow Wagtails has undergone a “moderate decline” between 1980 and 2013.

The Yellow Wagtail is a red-listed species of bird in Britain. They were moved from the green-list to the amber list in 2002 and then to the red list in 2009.

“Breeding populations declined by nearly 75% between 1967 and 2013 and data from Bird Atlas 2007-11 reveal that the species has been lost from the margins of its UK breeding range, which is largely restricted to central and eastern England and the Welsh Marches”.

Yellow Wagtails have been also lost from large parts of East Anglia where it was once “a familiar breeding species” (BTO - https://www.bto.org/understand…/species-focus/yellow-wagtail ).

The Yellow Wagtail population declined by 6% between 2017/18 according to the Breeding Bird Survey (Page 15 - https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/bbs-report-2018.pdf ).

Yellow Wagtails have been in “rapid decline” since the 1980s and their range has contracted to central and eastern England. Losses in their range have been reported in southern and western Britain and East Anglia.

“The European trend, which comprises several races of the species, has been of moderate decline since 1980” (BTO – Trends: https://app.bto.org/birdtrends/species.jsp?&s=yelwa ).

Yellow Wagtails are considered rare birds in Northern Ireland. They became extinct as a breeding species in 1968 and only single birds of passage have been recorded in recent years.

The Yellow Wagtail is a scarce breeding bird in the Republic of Ireland where it is amber listed. “The yellow wagtail is a…regular passage migrant, found along southern and eastern Irish coastal locations feeding on lowland rough pastures and wet meadows” (Irish News - https://www.irishnews.com/…/take-on-nature-grey-wagtail-an…/ .).

Agricultural intensification has been blamed for the decline of Yellow Wagtails in Britain. “It is thought that land drainage, the conversion of pasture to arable and a decline in invertebrate numbers (notably those associated with livestock) may be behind the decline” (BTO – please see above).

The BTO believes more research on the migration of Yellow Wagtails to and from their wintering grounds in West Africa may provide more information about the declines in their population.

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

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

Interesting Articles

Birdguides - Focus on: shades of Yellow Wagtail: https://www.birdguides.com/…/focus-on-shades-of-yellow-wag…/

Belted Kingfisher of Britain and Ireland

The Belted Kingfisher, Megaceryle alcyon, is native to North America and a rare visitor to Britain and Ireland They are known to roam over a wide area the autumn and a few occasionally turn up on the shores of the British Isles.

The male “is identified by its large head with stiff crest plumage, its characteristically long and heavy black bill with a grey base and its tiny feet. Belted kingfishers are notable because the females are brighter than the males – a condition known as reverse sexual dimorphism” (Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/…/punctuated-equi…/2011/jan/10/4 ).

Belted Kingfishers are solitary birds who live near a variety of freshwater habitats in North America such as rivers, streams, lakes, gravel pits and reservoirs. “

Pairs breed “on or near bodies of fresh or brackish water or along coasts throughout most North America” (Guardian – above). They make their nests by excavating burrows in river banks and along the shores of lakes. Both parents look after the young and only rear one brood a year.

“Belted kingfishers live on a diet including sticklebacks, trout, crayfish and insects “They perch along streams, lakes, and estuaries searching for prey and fly quickly up and down rivers and shorelines giving loud rattling calls”

“They hunt either by plunging directly from a perch, or by hovering over the water, bill downward, before diving after a fish they have spotted “

(Daily Mail - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/The-little-birdie-big-appetit… ).

Other prey includes small frogs, tadpoles, and reptiles. Plant material is sometimes eaten.

Most of the population travel south as far as South America during the autumn and return in the spring. Some remain on their breeding grounds in North America for the winter.

Belted Kingfishers “have a reputation for wandering widely during migration and vagrant individuals have been seen as far away as Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom” (Guardian – above).

There are less than ten reports of Belted Kingfishers in Britain and Ireland.

The Belted Kingfisher was first seen in Cornwall in England during 1909. The last sighting of a Belted Kingfisher in Cornwall was in October 1979 when it stayed until June 1980.

The next sighting occurred twenty-five years later in Staffordshire during April 2005. The bird travelled to Howden in Yorkshire and then Peterculter along the River Dee in Scotland. (Birdguides - https://www.birdguides.com/articles/the-belted-kingfisher/ ).

A Belted Kingfisher was reported on the Isle of Scilly in April 2018 (Rare Bird Alert - https://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/…/Finders-in-the-field-Blet… ).

The first official record of a Belted Kingfisher in Ireland was along the River Bunree in County Mayo between December 1978 and February 1979.

Another Belted Kingfisher was seen in County Clare in Ireland in the autumn of 1984. The little Kingfisher stayed in County Clare until the winter of 1985 before flying to Country Tipperary where it remained until the spring of 1985.

The most recent sighting in Ireland took place at the Kylemore Abbey estate in County Galway in October 2012. “It is believed to have got caught in a jet stream across the Atlantic on its annual migration south” (Irish Times - https://www.irishtimes.com/…/rare-sighting-of-belted-kingfi… ).

The Belted Kingfisher is classified as of Least Concern by IUCN,

The population of Belted Kingfishers has been stable in North America over the last 40 years.

Kingfisher Mythology

“According to the ancient Greeks, kingfishers built their nests on a raft of fish bones and, having laid their eggs, they set the nest afloat on the Mediterranean sea and incubated the eggs for seven days before and after the winter solstice.

In order to facilitate this it was said the gods always made sure that the seas and winds were calmed during this period.

The Greek name for Kingfisher is halcyon, leading to the term ‘halcyon days’ which was originally a reference to the calm and fine weather at this time in Greece. We now use the term to refer to fondly remembered times in our past.

The name halcyon itself comes from the Greek goddess, Alcyone who was married to Ceyx.

According to legend the couple were happily married but made the mistake of calling each other Zeus and Hera, which angered the real god Zeus who in bad temper killed Ceyx by sinking his ship with a thunderbolt.

On hearing this, Alcyone, wrought with grief, threw herself into the sea and drowned.

Out of compassion, however, the gods later changed them both into beautiful flashing blue halcyon birds named after her and recognised in the kingfisher’s scientific name of Alcedo, after Alcyone.

In Irish folklore it is said that dead kingfishers preserved in a dry place will never decay and if put among clothes and other articles, they will preserve them from moths and give them a pleasant odour.

Another old folk tradition in Ireland and Britain describes how a dead kingfisher hung by a thread from a post will always have its beak pointing in the direction of the prevailing wind.

Shakespeare refers to this in King Lear, writing:

Bring oil to the fire, snow to their colder moods;

Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks

With every gale and vary of their masters

A kingfisher, said to be the first bird to fly from Noah’s ark after the deluge, supposedly received the orange of the setting sun on its breast and the blue of the sky on its back.

It was considered a symbol of peace, promising prosperity and love” (Irish Times - Why the kingfisher is known as ‘the halcyon bird’ by Stephen Cotton: https://www.irishnews.com/…/take-on-nature-why-the-kingfis…/