Is this a Grey Wag Juv? (1 Viewer)

Not a good photo but this bird was seen on the banks of the Rio Genal in Spain. No adult birds went near before it flew off. My impression is a Grey Wag Juv but feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

I'd agree Grey Wagtail.

Me too, Grey Wag

Michael

Cheers guys. I have a few more that I will post in new threads. I have my ideas on their ID's but again feel free to pull me to pieces.

One surefire way to identify Grey Wagtail is to look at the legs. It is the only Wagtail to show pale legs - they are black on every other wagtail.

Darrell

Darrell Clegg said:

One surefire way to identify Grey Wagtail is to look at the legs. It is the only Wagtail to show pale legs - they are black on every other wagtail.

Darrell

Click to expand...

Very obvious,but in 16 years of birding I never knew this.

Darrell Clegg said:

One surefire way to identify Grey Wagtail is to look at the legs. It is the only Wagtail to show pale legs - they are black on every other wagtail.

Darrell

Click to expand...

Hi darrell

Are you stating this for Grey wag Juv's only or the adult birds as well. I ask this as I have had a Grey wag in my garden for quite a few months until recently and taken many photos of it. Our bird definitely had very dark legs that would have looked black in the field under certain conditions.

Reader,
Grey Wag should always show pale legs - the exact shade will differ from individual to individual, ranging from almost pink through to brown which under certain field conditions may look dark. However they will never have black legs like Pied/White and Yellow Wagtail have.

Darrell

Hi Darrell

Having checked through my photos and you are dead right. I suppose that I am so familiar with these birds that I tend to miss those obvious differences like leg colour.

I have attached 3 photos of our garden bird (now sadly gone to pastures new). They show the different colours that positioning of the bird can give you.

We really miss this bird as we had her in the garden for 6 months. She even roosted in a buddlea for a month prior to some freak winds snapping off the branches that she roosted on. She came right up to our patio window and used to even tap the window with its beak. TV would take a back seat when she was around. 2 days before she left a male joined her for a couple of hours in our garden and we were hoping that they would set up a nest in our garden or somewhere nearby. 2 days later she disappeared for a week, reappeared for 2 days then went for good. We haven't seen anything of them since then, which was the 19th March.

It would be nice if she came back next Autumn as she arrived on Sept 25th last year.