White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) - BirdLife species factsheet

White Wagtail Motacilla alba

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic note

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: #http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of _the_WP15.xls#.
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: #http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of _the_WP15.xls#.
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and taxonomy of Australian birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
Christidis, L.; Boles, W. E. 2008. Systematics and taxonomy of Australian birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
Cramp, S. and Perrins, C.M. 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Cramp, S.; Perrins, C. M. 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red list criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2016	Least Concern
2014	Least Concern
2013	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2006	Least Concern
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Species attributes

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	Does not normally occur in forest
Land mass type		Average mass	24.83291054 g

Extent of occurrence (EOO)

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence breeding/resident (km2)	91,800,000
Extent of Occurrence non-breeding (km2)	105,000,000
Number of locations		-
Fragmentation		-

Population and trend

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
No. of mature individuals	130000000-229999999	poor	estimated	2012
Population trend	Stable		estimated	-
Decline (3 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (5 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/3 generation future)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/3 generation past and future)		-	-	-
Number of subpopulations		-	-	-
Largest subpopulations		-	-	-
Generation length (yrs)	4.2	-	-	-

Population justification: Rich et al. (2004) estimated the global population to number 200,000 individuals. In Europe, the breeding population is estimated to number 16,900,000-27,600,000 pairs, which equates to 33,900,000-55,200,000 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015). Europe forms c.25% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 135,000,000-221,000,000 mature individuals, although further validation of this estimate is needed.

Trend justification: In Europe the overall trend for 1980-2013 was stable (EBCC 2015).

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Occurrence status	Presence	Resident	Breeding	Non-breeding	Passage
Afghanistan	N	Extant	Yes
Albania	N	Extant		Yes
Algeria	N	Extant
Andorra	N	Extant	Yes
Armenia	N	Extant		Yes
Australia	V	Extant
Austria	N	Extant	Yes
Azerbaijan	N	Extant	Yes
Bahrain	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Bangladesh	N	Extant
Belarus	N	Extant		Yes
Belgium	N	Extant	Yes
Benin	N	Extant			Yes
Bhutan	N	Extant
Bosnia and Herzegovina	N	Extant		Yes
Brunei	V	Extant
Bulgaria	N	Extant	Yes
Burkina Faso	N	Extant
Burundi	V	Extant
Cambodia	N	Extant
Cameroon	N	Extant
Canada	V	Extant
Cape Verde	N	Extant
Central African Republic	N	Extant
Chad	N	Extant
China (mainland)	N	Extant		Yes
Comoros	V	Extant
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	N	Extant
Croatia	N	Extant	Yes
Cyprus	N	Extant	Yes
Czech Republic	N	Extant	Yes
Denmark	N	Extant		Yes		Yes
Djibouti	N	Extant
Egypt	N	Extant
Eritrea	N	Extant
Estonia	N	Extant	Yes
Ethiopia	N	Extant
Faroe Islands (to Denmark)	N	Extant		Yes
Finland	N	Extant		Yes		Yes
France	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
Gabon	V	Extant
Gambia	N	Extant
Georgia	N	Extant		Yes
Germany	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
Ghana	N	Extant		Yes
Gibraltar (to UK)	N	Extant			Yes
Greece	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
Greenland (to Denmark)	N	Extant		Yes
Guam (to USA)	U	Extant
Guinea	N	Extant
Guinea-Bissau	N	Extant
Hong Kong (China)	N	Extant
Hungary	N	Extant		Yes
Iceland	N	Extant		Yes
India	N	Extant		Yes
Iran, Islamic Republic of	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
Iraq	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Ireland	N	Extant	Yes
Israel	N	Extant
Italy	N	Extant	Yes
Japan	N	Extant		Yes
Jordan	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Kazakhstan	N	Extant		Yes
Kenya	N	Extant
Kuwait	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Kyrgyzstan	N	Extant		Yes		Yes
Laos	N	Extant
Latvia	N	Extant	Yes
Lebanon	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
Libya	N	Extant
Liechtenstein	N	Extant	Yes
Lithuania	N	Extant	Yes
Luxembourg	N	Extant	Yes
Macao (China)	N	Extant
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of	N	Extant	Yes
Malaysia	N	Extant
Mali	N	Extant
Malta	N	Extant			Yes
Mauritania	N	Extant
Mexico	N	Extant
Moldova	N	Extant	Yes
Mongolia	N	Extant		Yes
Montenegro	N	Extant		Yes
Morocco	N	Extant
Myanmar	N	Extant
Nepal	N	Extant		Yes
Netherlands	N	Extant	Yes
Niger	N	Extant
Nigeria	N	Extant
North Korea	N	Extant		Yes
Northern Mariana Islands (to USA)	V	Extant
Norway	N	Extant		Yes
Oman	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Pakistan	N	Extant		Yes
Palau	V	Extant
Palestinian Authority Territories	N	Extant			Yes
Philippines	N	Extant
Poland	N	Extant	Yes
Portugal	N	Extant	Yes
Qatar	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Romania	N	Extant	Yes
Russia	N	Extant		Yes
Russia (Asian)	N	Extant		Yes
Russia (Central Asian)	N	Extant		Yes
Russia (European)	N	Extant		Yes
Rwanda	U	Extant
San Marino	N	Extant	Yes
Saudi Arabia	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Senegal	N	Extant
Serbia	N	Extant		Yes
Seychelles	V	Extant
Sierra Leone	N	Extant
Singapore	N	Extant
Slovakia	N	Extant	Yes
Slovenia	N	Extant	Yes
Somalia	N	Extant
South Korea	N	Extant		Yes
South Sudan	N	Extant			Yes
Spain	N	Extant	Yes
Sri Lanka	N	Extant
St Pierre and Miquelon (to France)	V	Extant
Sudan	N	Extant
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (to Norway)	N	Extant		Yes
Sweden	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
Switzerland	N	Extant	Yes
Syria	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
Taiwan, China	N	Extant		Yes
Tajikistan	N	Extant		Yes
Tanzania	V	Extant
Thailand	N	Extant
Togo	V	Extant
Trinidad and Tobago	V	Extant
Tunisia	N	Extant
Turkey	N	Extant	Yes
Turkmenistan	N	Extant		Yes
Uganda	N	Extant
Ukraine	N	Extant	Yes			Yes
United Arab Emirates	N	Extant			Yes
United Kingdom	N	Extant	Yes
USA	N	Extant		Yes
Uzbekistan	N	Extant		Yes
Vietnam	N	Extant
Western Sahara	N	Extant			Yes
Yemen	N	Extant			Yes	Yes
Zambia	U	Extant
Zimbabwe	U	Extant

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	non-breeding
Desert	Hot	suitable	breeding
Desert	Hot	suitable	non-breeding
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Rocky Shoreline	suitable	breeding
Marine Intertidal	Rocky Shoreline	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Sandy Shoreline and/or Beaches, Sand Bars, Spits, Etc	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Sandy Shoreline and/or Beaches, Sand Bars, Spits, Etc	suitable	breeding
Marine Intertidal	Shingle and/or Pebble Shoreline and/or Beaches	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Shingle and/or Pebble Shoreline and/or Beaches	suitable	breeding
Marine Intertidal	Tidepools	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Tidepools	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	non-breeding
Altitude	0 - 5000 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Utilisation

Purpose	Primary form used	Life stage used	Source	Level	Timing
Food - human	-	-	-	Non-trivial	Recent
Pets/display animals, horticulture	-	-	-	Non-trivial	Recent
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	-	-	-	Non-trivial	Recent

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2019) Species factsheet: Motacilla alba. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 17/02/2019. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2019) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 17/02/2019.