A non-breeding summer visitor to northern Australia (November - April).
Habitat
Running water in diused quarries, sandy, rocky streams in escarpments and rainforests, sewage ponds, ploughed fields. From sea-level - 4,100 m.
Food
Mainly insects and spiders. Some small fish and tadpoles.
Voice
A clear, metallic, 'chitik', 'tzit-zee' or 'tchit', repeated. A shrill 'tchee' uttered in contact. Song, a series of shrill notes, getting louder.
Grey Wagtail (Motacilla) [XC861383]
by Jo\u00e3o Tom\u00e1s from Montpellier, H\u00e9rault, Occitanie, France (flight call)
Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) [XC812492]
by Carlos Pereira from Pico Gaspar, Angra do Hero\u00edsmo, Azores, Portugal (alarm call, begging call, call, flight call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds from wstern Europe to Asia.
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Nest
A cup composed of grass, roots and twigs, in a hole or crevice, usually above water, lined with moss.
Subspecies
Relationships uncertain. Sometimes thought to form a superspecies with Mountain Wagtail (Motacilla clara) but possibly closer to eastern forms of Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava). Variation clinal, tail length decreasing gradually from west to east, and eastern individuals on average darker, but differences relatively minor and much individual variation. Eastern subspecies melanope and robusta possibly better merged with nominate. Similarly, birds from Turkey, Caucasus and Iran sometimes treated as subspecies caspica, but appear indistinguishable from nominate.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
cinerea Tunstall, 1771 - Britain and Europe, north-western Africa and Canary Islands, Iran and Afghanistan, east to Himalayas, central and eastern China and through much of Siberia east to Kamchatka Peninsula, Korea, Japan and Taiwan, wintering southern and western Europe, western, northern and eastern Africa, Middle East and Arabia, southern and south-eastern Asia, Philippines, Indonesian Archipeligo, western New Guinea and northern and eastern Australia.
patriciae Vaurie, 1957 - Azores.
schmitzi Tschusi, 1900 - Madeira.
melanope Pallas, 1776 - Breeds northern Asia from Ural Mts east to central coast of Sea of Okhotsk, south to north-west, northern and eastern Mongolia and eastern China (south to southern Gansu, southern Shaanxi and Hebei). Also in mountains from Tien Shan south to eastern Afghanistan and eastern along Himalayas. Winters north-eastern Africa and southern and south-eastern Asia.
robusta (C. L. Brehm, 1857) - Breeds extreme eastern Asia from eastern Russia (southern and central Kamchatka and Amurland) south to Korea and Japan. Winters south to Sundas and New Guinea.
canariensis Hartert, 1901 - Canary Is.
Similar Species
Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) which lacks a yellow rump, white wing bars and has a shorter tail and non-breeding with non-breeding Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) which lacks a yellow rump, lacks a white throat, and has two white wing bars.
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