• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

French bird and wagtail in uk (1 Viewer)

Mike Tom

Well-known member
Can anyone identify the bird flying off a rooftop in Argeles sur mer close to the Pyrenees in South West France in April this year, and the other bird is a wagtail in Dorset two months ago, is it a pied or white and what is the difference ?
 

Attachments

  • DSC08884.JPG
    DSC08884.JPG
    764.7 KB · Views: 183
  • 14 she 015.jpg
    14 she 015.jpg
    30.2 KB · Views: 160
Dorset, UK, rooftop, 2 months ago - Pied on probability surely?

I always assumed White Wagtails in the UK on spring/autumn migration would turn up in coastal regions/open country etc as opposed to urban environments - observer bias in recording may have an influence, but surely mostly true?

(admittedly don't know where the building in OP is situated).
 
It could be a white wagtail, but pied is probably more likely and there’s nothing in the picture to indicate either way.
 
Do you often see pied wagtails in jolly old england ?? I thought it was rather an african ??

Yep indeed. Pied Wagtails in the UK are resident year round (or move around a bit).

White Wagtails in some parts of Europe are highly migratory - moving from C and N Europe to Africa. I'm guessing a lot of the UK autumn records are Icelandic (c50,000 pairs) and maybe other N Europe too (?)
 
Thinking about it I've seen a White Wagtail (with a couple of Pied) on a farmhouse roof a couple miles inland in Cornwall - but just the once.
Surprised you've had so few - virtually the entire Icelandic White Wagtail population passes through Britain and/or Ireland on spring and autumn migration, and that's probably not far short of the total population size of Pied Wag. One of the commoner inland passage birds in Britain, though surprisingly tricky to ID juveniles in the autumn.
 
Surprised you've had so few - virtually the entire Icelandic White Wagtail population passes through Britain and/or Ireland on spring and autumn migration, and that's probably not far short of the total population size of Pied Wag. One of the commoner inland passage birds in Britain, though surprisingly tricky to ID juveniles in the autumn.

On roofs? - guess I've never really looked, which was my point - do others?

Seen flocks at the coast and by reservoirs etc, and odd ones randomly about, but usually only in small time windows annually, and sometimes seem to miss them entirely if don't get out birding much in suitable habitat at that time of year ...
 
Not sure if you still get the large city flocks that go to roost in hundreds. Certainly numbers last year in Norwich reached c.200 at one site.
 
I wish I"d read the full post - Wagtail in Dorset! I stopped at South West France which could have all but excluded Pied.

Anyway, I agree its not possible a differentiate between the two from this photo.
 
Wasn't obvious that you were limiting to rooftop sightings! But I can't see that Icelandic White Wags would differ in habitat choice from Pied Wags 3:)

You mean the bit where I mentioned about it being on a farmhouse roof? ;)

I think in an urban setting a migrant White Wagtail would be unlikely, whereas in a more natural setting much more so.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 5 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top