Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola Scientific name definitions

16·5–20 cm; 18–25 g. Male nominate race in breeding plumage has bright yellow head and underparts, black lower hindneck and upper mantle , black extending slightly onto breast side; lower mantle and scapulars dark grey, tinged olive, rump dark slate-grey, uppertail-coverts black; remiges and greater and median wing-coverts dark brown to black with pale edgings, white covert tips forming two wingbars, lesser coverts dark olive-grey; tail mostly black, outer two feather pairs mainly white with black bases; yellow of underparts washed olive-grey on side of breast and flanks, sometimes blackish spots on breast side, undertail-coverts yellowish-white; iris dark brown; bill black; legs black or blackish-brown. Non-breeding male is duller, hind­crown to mantle and scapulars dark olive-grey to grey, sometimes some dark mottling above, yellow areas paler. Female resembles non-breeding male; non-breeding female is duller, greyer above, yellow areas paler, grey on side of breast and flanks, whiter on belly. Immature has little or no yellow in plumage, is more buff and more grey than non-breeding female, olive-brown on breast side and flanks. Races differ mainly in colour tones of breeding male, but much individual variation: werae male differs from nominate in having purer grey back with no dusky suffusion, paler below with less grey on flanks, female is similar to nominate, on average slightly smaller; calcarata male differs in having all-black upperparts , deeper yellow of head and underparts extending to undertail-coverts, edges of tertials broader and purer white, greater coverts often all white, often more black on inner webs of outer two rectrices, female is similar to nominate but may show diffuse blackish spots on mantle to rump, more blackish uppertail-coverts, has more yellowish-tinged undertail-coverts, on average longer bill and tarsus.

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• Western Yellow x Citrine Wagtail (hybrid) Motacilla flava x citreola

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Favours marshes, edges of lakes, willow (Salix) thickets and wet rough grassland in tundra, also areas of willow bushes on mountain meadows and sometimes in fields near villages. In non-breeding season similarly wet habitats, including also coastal marshes, brackish lagoons, sewage farms and irrigated land, wet paddyfields, lake margins and riverine sandbars; in Nepal favours wetter areas than those used by M. flava. Breeds from sea-level to 4600 m.

Migratory. Winters in Indian Subcontinent (except S & E) and in SE Asia, smaller numbers also S shores of Caspian Sea and N Persian Gulf; occasional winterer in Middle East. Regularly recorded during spring migration in Israel and also in Oman, which may indicate that a wintering area exists in Africa; at least 15 records from Africa (Egypt, Sinai, Morocco, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Cameroon), and one straggler reached South Africa in Apr–May 1998. Occasionally occurs E to Japan, and has been recorded in the Philippines (Luzon, Apr 2012) (7 Jensen, A. E., T. H. Fisher, and R. O. Hutchinson (2015). Notable new bird records from the Philippines. Forktail 31:24–36. Close ). Increasingly recorded as a vagrant in W Europe since 1980 (presumably all either nominate or werae, although there is one W Palearctic record of calcarata, in E Turkey, in May 2011) (8 Kirwan, G.M., Özen, M., Ertuhan, M. and Atahan, A. (compilers) (2014). Turkey Bird Report 2007–2011. Sandgrouse. 36(2): 146–175. Close ). S migration mainly Aug–Oct; return N from Mar, arrival in breeding areas Mar–May, in N Siberia not until Jun. ­Migrates and winters in flocks; sometimes roosts together with M. flava, as in S Nepal (Chitwan).

Food includes wide variety of invertebrates , often aquatic, and their larvae ; recorded items include, among others, nymphs and adults of dragonflies (Odonata) and beetle larvae  (Coleoptera), adult and larval flies (Diptera), and spiders (Araneae). Forages by picking and darting for prey; takes items from the ground, from low vegetation or from water surface. Walks on open wet ground at edge of water and on floating mats of aquatic vegetation such as water hyacinth (Eichhornia); wades in shallow water. Will also flutter up to snatch an insect in air.

Song  , from bushtop or in flight, 2–4 simple notes, first note often sharper, repeated in phrases separated by several seconds; rather similar to that of M. flava or M. alba. Call a distinctive wheezy or husky, rather harsh “peep”, “zeet”, “dzeep” or “drreeep” or disyllabic “tit tit”; also higher-pitched and less rasping “pzeeoow”.

Late Apr–Jun, later in N, and May–Aug in SE (calcarata); often two broods. Monogamous; territorial, but may nest semi-colonially. Nest, built by female, a cup of moss and plant leaves and stems, lining of hair, wool and feathers, placed on ground in grassy vegetation. Clutch 3–6 eggs, occasionally 7; incubation by both sexes, period 14–15 days, in Poland 11–12 days; nestling period 10–13 days, sometimes up to 15 days. For 28 nests in Poland, hatching success 55·3%, fledging success 38·1%, average of 1·8 young reared per nest.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Very common in tundra belt of N Russia, less common farther S; estimated total population in European Russia over 300,000 pairs. Density in preferred habitat in Ukraine 0·3–0·5 pairs/ha. In recent decades has extended its range to W & SW; regular breeder in Ukraine since 1976, breeding first reported in Belarus in 1982, in Lithuania in 1987, in Estonia in 1991, in Latvia in 1993 (six pairs in 1998), and in Finland and N Poland since 1990s; has bred in Germany and the former Czechoslovakia, and in Armenia.