African Pied Wagtail Motacilla aguimp Scientific name definitions

20 cm; male 22–33 g, female 23–30 g. Male nominate race  in breeding plumage has broad white supercilium from bill base to well behind eye, squarish white patch on side of neck; centre of forehead to nape, also lores, subocular area, ear-coverts and vertical band on neck side black; mantle  , scapulars and back black, rump greyish-black, uppertail-coverts black, lateral ones with white outer webs; primaries black with narrow white tips, large white area on both webs at base, secondaries black, broadly tipped white, outer web edged white, tertials black with outer webs broadly edged white; alula, primary coverts and lesser wing-coverts black, median and greater coverts white; tail black, central pair of feathers sometimes with wide white edging, outer two pairs white, T5 with black edging on inner web; chin to uppermost breast white, broad black pectoral band narrower at side, black blotching on side of breast and flanks, rest of underparts white; underwing-coverts white; iris dark brown; bill and legs black. Differs from similar M. samveasnae in somewhat larger size, proportionately shorter bill, less white on outer edges of primaries. Non-breeding male has black of upperparts replaced with slate-grey. Breeding female has dark areas less intensely black; in non-breeding plumage upperparts are dark olive-grey. Immature has black of adult plumage (except remiges and rectrices) replaced with dark olivaceous grey-brown, white replaced with buffy white, greater and median primary coverts white with buffy tips. Race <em>vidua</em> differs from nominate in narrower, better-defined breastband, lacks black blotching on breast side and flanks, has outer rectrix entirely white and adjacent one with less black.

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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.

In humid tropical regions occurs near human habitations, as at farms, in villages, on roofs and roads in towns and cities, in parks and on garden lawns, as well as around reservoirs, lakes, coastal lagoons, sewage ponds, and on sandy banks or rocky areas along or in rivers. In drier areas more restricted to perennial rivers with rocks and sandbanks and to other permanent waterbodies, such as reservoirs. Sea-level to moderate elevations; to 3000 m in E Africa. Communal roosts in non-breeding season in trees, on buildings, even on boats.

Largely resident; some movements, but not fully understood. Much local movement thought to take place in many countries, but data for S Africa reveal little evidence of large-scale seasonal movements; an uncommon vagrant in Botswana away from N & NE breeding areas. Non-breeding visitor to Pemba I and Zanzibar, off NE Tanzania; recorded also in W Chad (L Chad), on São Tomé and in SW South Africa.

Diet includes wide variety of small terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, mainly insects . Recorded items include adult and larval flies (Diptera), beetles (Coleoptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), dragonflies (Odonata), ants (Hymenoptera), termites (Isoptera), butterflies (Lepidoptera), crustaceans, worms (Annelida). Small fish also taken; and household crumbs and scraps eaten. Forages by walking and picking, or darting forward to snatch prey on the ground or from low vegetation (run-picking); also by jumping up to snatch an insect, or by aerial fly-catching. Occasionally hovers over water to pick insects from surface. Outside breeding season, flocks of up to 100 sometimes congregate at favoured feeding areas, e.g. sewage farms, individuals and small groups foraging in close proximity to one another.

Song a sustained melodious series of whistling and piping notes, “weet-weet, wip-wip-wip, weet, wee-wee” and so on, likened to song of Atlantic Canary (Serinus canaria); imitates other species, including Common Bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus) and Chattering Cisticola (Cisticola anonyma). Call a high-pitched sharp “tweet” or “chizzit”, and more liquid rapid trisyllabic “quick-quick-treeet”, “twee-twee-twee” or “tseet-tseet-tseet” with final note very high, or a whistled thin but loud “tuwhee”.

Starts to breed prior to rains and continues into wet season: mostly Feb–May in W Africa, Oct–Apr in Nigeria, Aug and Dec–Feb in Gabon, probably all months in DRCongo; most or all months (mainly Feb–Dec) in E Africa, Dec–Oct in coastal Kenya and S Somalia; Feb–May and Aug–Nov (mainly Mar, Sept, Oct) in Malawi, and Feb–Dec (mainly Sept) in Zambia; in all months except Jan (peak Aug–Oct) in Zimbabwe; all months except May, mainly before and at start of rains, peak in Sept–Oct, in South Africa; usually 2–3 broods, in Kenya up to seven recorded in a season. Monogamous; solitary, and territorial, very aggressive towards conspecifics, sometimes also towards other species, e.g. M. cinerea and Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos). Nest, built by both sexes, a bulky cup of grass, stems, rootlets, leaves, downy seeds and feathers, occasionally seaweed and coconut fibres incorporated, lined with grass, hair, feathers or fine rootlets, placed on ground in grass tussock or other vegetation, in riverbank, in flood debris, in crevice or on ledge in cliff or in house roof or outbuilding, sometimes on boat. Clutch 2–7 eggs, usually 3–4; incubation by both sexes, mainly by female, period 13–14 days; chicks fed by both sexes, nestling period 15–16 days; juveniles fed by both parents for c. 2 weeks after fledging. Nests parasitized by Red-chested Cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius), Diederik Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx caprius) and Jacobin Cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus).

Not globally threatened. Common and widespread in much of range, and generally tame and confiding; common to uncommon in W Africa. Locally common in S Sudan, but absent in extreme SE, the Sudd and the region NW of Wau. Uncommon in Somalia, only 19 records to 1991, along lower R Juba; three old records on coast at Baraawe, somewhere on R Shabeelle and on Ethiopian side of border. Widespread and common in Kenya (except N & NE); very common in Malawi below 1500 m and in Viphya Mts (at 1830 m) and Nyika Plateau (at 2240 m). Appears to have declined as a breeding bird during 20th century along Nile Valley in Egypt. Over much of S Africa has possibly benefited from construction of dams and from creation of lawns and ponds in parks and gardens, although drying-up of rivers through overabstraction may have caused some local declines.