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Yellow Wagtails, Taiwan (1 Viewer)

M

modrawnu

Active member
The followings are three individuals in Taiwan recently. Please help to ID the Eastern/Western Yellow Wagtail and subspecies if possible. Thanks!

Date: 17~21th March, 2017
Location: Taipei City, Taiwan
 

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SteveMM said:
Alstrom & Mild says 'indistinguishable from thunbergi', so best to go on range (= macronyx). (No to your question, BTW.)
Click to expand...

Hence the question Steve. I would at best suggest on call only and my original answer was based on location hence Eastern and ssp macronyx.
 
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SteveMM said:
Alstrom & Mild says 'indistinguishable from thunbergi', so best to go on range (= macronyx). (No to your question, BTW.)
Click to expand...

Just checked the Chinese Wild Bird Federation List for 2012 and Motacilla flava is listed as 'common', so a 70-100% chance of seeing one on a day out. They've managed to somehow elude me thus far! Somewhat remarkably, Eastern Yellow Wagtail is listed as uncommon.
 
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Given the excessive amounts of yellow spilling out onto the mantle, through the covert fringes, and onto the undertail coverts, can a xanthistic Yellow Wagtail be ruled out with certainty for bird 3?
 
rockfowl said:
I did wonder that myself.
Click to expand...

Citrine is genuinely quite rare on the 'mainland' of Taiwan (but easy on outlying islands closer to China on passage), so I'm always a bit wary with these. Bird 1 really is (as you say above) 'remarkably' worn if Citrine (the wingbars are so narrow) and the mantle looks a bit green-toned. That said, the white undertail coverts would seem to favour Citrine above any kind of Yellow.

Rather less sure about Bird 3, though. Xanthistic Yellow Wags tend to pop up from time to time (and with a bit more frequency than Citrines), so I'd tend to favour that as an explanation for this bird. Winter taivana with extensive yellow in the ear coverts are also pretty frequent.
 
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1 looks more like a citrine but 3 seems to be an eastern flava type. there is some green-yellow on upperparts and even greater covert tips and fringes are yellowish.
 
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