Wagtail - North-west Poland (1 Viewer)

[AGDK]

Hello

I was going through some old pictures and stumbled upon this bird from June 2021.. In the field I assumed it was a Yellow Wagtail and when I checked pictures online, it looked quite the same.. Now I just checked for fun how juvenile Citrine Wagtail looks like and it's look even more right for Citrine, but yet not exactly..

Yellow Wagtail breeds on big numbers around here and that year I saw at least a male Citrine Wagtail in the area from May to July, which looked like it was carrying food, so there is chances for both species..

So now my question is how to determine what it is?.. I can't seem to find some useful online documentation to exclude any of these 2, it's hard to see length of tail or legs, so I'm hoping someone here could help me

Thanks!

 

[njlarsen]

No personal experience but two different books both state that this has two hits against being Citrine: The lower wing bar looks yellowish, should be pure white, and the bill should be all black in Citrine.
Niels

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,
If you can cope with german language, please see this excellent article Limicola: Downloads

I haven't seen a juvenile Citrines Wagtail yet, so I hope for more comments too.

 

[Grahame Walbridge]

No personal experience but two different books both state that this has two hits against being Citrine: The lower wing bar looks yellowish, should be pure white, and the bill should be all black in Citrine.
Niels

In the early stages of fledging they are superficially very similar. Juvenile Citrine has buffish-white or creamy-white wing bars initially which quickly wear to pure white, the difference is in that they are much broader, particularly the posterior bar which, contrast with black feather bases and remiges. Young Citrines have pale bills too which soon darken with age. Some lovely images here 187.1918.8672 Situunavästäräkki, Citrine Wagtail, Motacilla citreola

The OP is a juvenile Yellow Wagtail.

Grahame

 

[AGDK]

Hello,
If you can cope with german language, please see this excellent article Limicola: Downloads

I haven't seen a juvenile Citrines Wagtail yet, so I hope for more comments too.

Hi Alexander

Thanks for your link, but I'm far from fluent in the German language.. It's many years since I had that in school..

But I'll take a look on it later and see if I can catch something

Thanks again

 

[AGDK]

In the early stages of fledging they are superficially very similar. Juvenile Citrine has buffish-white or creamy-white wing bars initially which quickly wear to pure white, the difference is in that they are much broader, particularly the posterior bar which, contrast with black feather bases and remiges. Young Citrines have pale bills too which soon darken with age. Some lovely images here 187.1918.8672 Situunavästäräkki, Citrine Wagtail, Motacilla citreola

The OP is a juvenile Yellow Wagtail.

Grahame

HI Grahame

Thanks for your information, link and confirmation.. I'll check it..