Derivation
Mo-ta-cil'-la - L., wagtail: ci-tre-o'-la - L., citreolus, citrine, referring to the bright yellow head and underparts of the breeding plumage
Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) [XC643078]
by Uku Paal from Rann Riders, Estonia (flight call)
Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) [XC185018]
by Albert Lastukhin from Novocheboksarsk, gorod Novocheboksarsk, Chuvash Republic, Uzbekistan (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds from western Russia and Turkey to Siberia.
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Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of grass and plant-stems, in a depression in the ground, usually sheltered by a tussock.
Eggs (Guide)
4 - 6; pale greyish-buff with dark speckling.
Subspecies
Motacilla citreola (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split by Pavlova et al. (2003) into two separate species Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) and Western Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla werae), nested within Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava). The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group find this treatment counter-intuitive and follow the treatment of Tyler (2004) in recognising flava as one large polytypic species and citreola as one small polytypic species pending a more coherent and complete analysis of the molecular and morphological evidence.
Proposed subspecies quassitrix (described from southern Russian Altai) considered indistinguishable from nominate, and sindzianicus (northern Xinjiang, in north-western China) from werae; weigoldi (from northern Sichuan, in central China) synonymized with calcarata.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
citreola Pallas, 1776 - Breeds northern Europe (Finland, northern Russia) east to central Siberia, Transbaikalia, Mongolia and north-western Manchuria. Winters mainly Indian Subcontinent, also south-eastern Asia.
werae (Buturlin, 1907) - Breeds eastern Europe (southern Baltic Republics, eastern Poland), Belarus and Ukraine east to Russian Altai, northern and eastern Kazakhstan and north-western China (north-western Xinjiang). Winters Indian Subcontinent and south-eastern Asia. Consid. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Western Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla werae).
calcarata Hodgson, 1836 - Breeds eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and central Asian mountains from Tien Shan east to central China (east to central Gansu and Sichuan) and south to northern Himalayas. Winters lowlands from southern Afghanistan east to Myanmar.
Similar Species
Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) which has a yellow rump and a very long tail and Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) which has greener upperparts and lacks white wingbars, and less yellow on the sides of face and neck.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
BirdLife International Species Factsheet