Motacillidae Wagtails and Pipits
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Introduction
These thin, long-tailed birds with long claws on the hallux are birds of grasslands, pastures, and prairies. Pipits have muted brown plumages, and wagtails are more dapper in their shades of gray, black, and white, often with a patch or wash of yellow. Longclaws combine the browns of one with the yellow (or even red) splashes of the other, and they bear an uncanny resemblance to the meadowlarks (Icteridae) of the New World, in appearance and in their melodious whistled songs. They all share the white outer tail feathers so characteristic of birds of open country. Although only the wagtails translate the meaning of their family’s Latin name (Motacilla means “moving tail”), most motacilids constantly pump their long tails as they walk.
Habitat
Most motacillids are birds of open habitats, including grasslands, tundra, and savanna, though a few species live in more-wooded habitats.
Diet and Foraging
Motacillids are primarily insectivorous, often adding to their diet spiders and worms, as well as small crustaceans, snails, and even small vertebrates when feeding near water. Birds forage primarily on the ground, picking prey off the ground as well as making short flights to catch insects in the air. When insects are scarce, many species also feed on seeds and berries.
Breeding
Pipits, wagtails, and longclaws are primarily monogamous with biparental care, though both polyandry and polygyny have been observed rarely in well-studied species. Most construct a cup-shaped nest of grasses, rootlets, leaves, and other materials, which is well-hidden on the ground beneath a bush or nestled within a tussock. Many species place the nest in a hollow that they excavate or in the hoof print of a mammal. Females typically lay 2 to 6 eggs. Nest construction responsibilities vary, with both the male and female participating in some species, and only the female in others. Incubation, too, is by both sexes or by the female alone, and it takes from 11 to 14 days. Both parents feed the chicks, and the chicks leave the nest after 11 to 14, and occasionally up to 17 days. Care of the fledged young usually lasts more than two weeks and sometimes up to eight weeks post-fledge.
Conservation Status
Habitat loss is the primary threat, putting 15% of motacillid species at risk (4 NT, 3 VU, 3 EN). The endangered Sokoke Pipit An- thus sokokensis, limited to fewer than ten forest patches along the East African coast, and the Rufous-throated White-eye Madanga ruficollis, from hill forests on the Wallacean island of Buru, are both threatened by forest conversion to agriculture. The endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei, living in grassland fragments in the southern Kenyan highlands, is threatened by conversion of grasslands to intensive agriculture or tree farms.
Systematics History
The pipits and wagtails are part of the superfamily Passeroidea. Although their position within this large radiation of the oscine passerines is not fully resolved, most recent phylogenetic studies place Motacillidae as sister to the clade made up of Fringillidae and the New World nine-primaried oscines (Johansson et al. 2008b, Treplin et al. 2008, Fjeldså et al. 2010). An alternative arrangement, less well supported, suggests that Motacillidae is sister to the New World nine-primaried oscines excluding Fringillidae (Ericson & Johansson 2003) or in a polytomy with them (Yang et al. 2006). Within Motacillidae, there are either two or three main clades (Outlaw & Voelker 2006b, Alström et al. 2015). We follow the recent molecular evidence by Alström et al. in moving two aberrant island forms to this family: Madanga from Zosteropidae and Amaurocichla from Sylviidae. As Alström et al. point out, this creates paraphyly in both Anthus and Motacilla, and further taxonomic revision is needed.
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
76.8%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
5.8%
|
Vulnerable |
7.2%
|
Endangered |
4.3%
|
Critically Endangered |
0%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0%
|
Extinct |
0%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
0%
|
Unknown |
5.8%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2023) Red List. More information
Related families
Motacillidae is sequentially sister to a large radiation of songbirds, including Fringillidae and the entire New World Nine-primaried Oscine radiation.