Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) | Details

Western Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic note

Motacilla flava and M. tschutschensis (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) were previously lumped as M. flava following AERC TAC (2003); Cramp et al. (1977-1994); Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993); Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
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
2018	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
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	18 g

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	40,900,000 km²
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	102,000,000 km²
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	60000000-109999999 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2012
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	4.7 years	-	-	-

Population justification: In Europe, the breeding population is estimated to number 9,630,000-16,000,000 pairs, which equates to 19,300,000-32,100,000 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015). Europe forms c.30% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 64,000,000-107,000,000 mature individuals, although further validation of this estimate is needed.

Trend justification: In Europe, trends between 1980 and 2013 show that populations have undergone a moderate decline (p<0.01) (EBCC 2015).

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Afghanistan	extant	native		yes		yes
Albania	extant	native		yes
Algeria	extant	native			yes
Angola	extant	native			yes
Armenia	extant	native		yes
Austria	extant	native		yes
Azerbaijan	extant	native		yes
Bahrain	extant	native				yes
Bangladesh	extant	native			yes
Belarus	extant	native		yes
Belgium	extant	native		yes
Benin	extant	native			yes
Bhutan	extant	native				yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina	extant	native		yes
Botswana	extant	native			yes
Bulgaria	extant	native		yes
Burkina Faso	extant	native			yes
Burundi	extant	native			yes
Cameroon	extant	native			yes
Cape Verde	extant	vagrant
Central African Republic	extant	native			yes
Chad	extant	native			yes
China (mainland)	extant	native		yes
Comoros	extant	vagrant
Congo	extant	native			yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native			yes
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	native			yes
Croatia	extant	native		yes
Cyprus	extant	native		yes
Czechia	extant	native		yes
Denmark	extant	native		yes		yes
Djibouti	extant	native			yes
Egypt	extant	native	yes
Equatorial Guinea	extant	native			yes
Eritrea	extant	native			yes
Estonia	extant	native		yes
Eswatini	extant	native			yes
Ethiopia	extant	native			yes
Faroe Islands (to Denmark)	extant	vagrant
Finland	extant	native		yes		yes
France	extant	native		yes		yes
Gabon	extant	native			yes
Gambia	extant	native			yes
Georgia	extant	native		yes
Germany	extant	native		yes		yes
Ghana	extant	native			yes
Gibraltar (to UK)	extant	native		yes		yes
Greece	extant	native		yes		yes
Guinea	extant	native			yes
Guinea-Bissau	extant	native			yes
Hungary	extant	native		yes
Iceland	extant	vagrant
India	extant	native			yes
Iran, Islamic Republic of	extant	native		yes		yes
Iraq	extant	native				yes
Ireland	extant	native		yes
Israel	extant	native		yes
Italy	extant	native		yes		yes
Jordan	extant	native		yes		yes
Kazakhstan	extant	native		yes
Kenya	extant	native			yes
Kuwait	extant	native				yes
Kyrgyzstan	extant	native		yes
Latvia	extant	native		yes
Lebanon	extant	native		yes		yes
Liberia	extant	native			yes
Libya	extant	native			yes
Liechtenstein	extant	native		yes
Lithuania	extant	native		yes
Luxembourg	extant	native		yes
Malawi	extant	native			yes
Maldives	extant	vagrant
Mali	extant	native			yes
Malta	extant	native				yes
Mauritania	extant	native
Moldova	extant	native		yes		yes
Monaco	extant	native		yes
Mongolia	extant	native		yes
Montenegro	extant	native		yes
Morocco	extant	native	yes			yes
Mozambique	extant	native			yes
Namibia	extant	native			yes
Nepal	extant	native				yes
Netherlands	extant	native		yes
Niger	extant	native			yes
Nigeria	extant	native			yes
North Macedonia	extant	native		yes
Norway	extant	native		yes		yes
Oman	extant	native			yes	yes
Pakistan	extant	native			yes	yes
Palau	extant	native			yes
Poland	extant	native		yes
Portugal	extant	native		yes
Qatar	extant	native				yes
Romania	extant	native		yes
Russia	extant	native		yes
Russia (Asian)	extant	native		yes
Russia (Central Asian)	extant	native		yes
Russia (European)	extant	native		yes
Rwanda	extant	native			yes
San Marino	extant	native		yes
Saudi Arabia	extant	native				yes
Senegal	extant	native			yes
Serbia	extant	native		yes
Seychelles	extant	vagrant
Sierra Leone	extant	native			yes
Slovakia	extant	native		yes
Slovenia	extant	native		yes
Somalia	extant	native			yes
South Africa	extant	native			yes
South Sudan	extant	native			yes
Spain	extant	native		yes
Sri Lanka	extant	native			yes
Sudan	extant	native			yes
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (to Norway)	extant	vagrant
Sweden	extant	native		yes		yes
Switzerland	extant	native		yes
Syria	extant	native		yes		yes
Tajikistan	extant	native		yes
Tanzania	extant	native			yes
Togo	extant	native			yes
Tunisia	extant	native			yes
Türkiye	extant	native		yes
Turkmenistan	extant	native		yes
Uganda	extant	native			yes
Ukraine	extant	native		yes		yes
United Arab Emirates	extant	native		yes	yes	yes
United Kingdom	extant	native		yes
Uzbekistan	extant	native		yes
Western Sahara	extant	native	yes			yes
Yemen	extant	native			yes	yes
Zambia	extant	native			yes
Zimbabwe	extant	native			yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Finland	Pöyrisjärvi wilderness

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Aquatic & Marine	Artificial/Aquatic - Wastewater Treatment Areas	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Aquatic & Marine	Artificial/Aquatic - Wastewater Treatment Areas	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	non-breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Grassland	Tundra	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Tundra	suitable	non-breeding
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	non-breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Freshwater Lakes (over 8ha)	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Freshwater Lakes (over 8ha)	suitable	non-breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	non-breeding
Altitude	0 - 4500 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Utilisation

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Western Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/western-yellow-wagtail-motacilla-flava on 27/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 27/12/2024.