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

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