Appearance:

A large and long-tailed thrush. Slate grey lower back, rump and head. Brown upper back and yellow buff breast with dark spots. The all dark tail contrasts with the grey rump. Tail colour combined with white underwing distinguishes it from all other thrushes when flying. Flight undulated in long waves, with alternating glides and bursts of wing-beats.

Sound:

Very vocal. Scolding call a hard "check", often given in decelerating series. Contact call in migration a soft, pleasant but, buzzy "weet". Song a mix of dry contact calls; "trrrt trrrrt", and high pitched, drawn out, chattering improvisations. Typically bursts into continuos, squeaky chattering at takeoff.

Contact call, song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Highly variable with many subspecies in different regions. Upperparts mainly grey and greenish, underparts yellow. Tail quite short compared to other wagtails, and the whole bird in profile is not unlike a pipit. Smallest wagtail in the region. Some birds are very pale below, head markings are very variable, depending on subspecies. Hybrids are not uncommon. Differs from Grey Wagtail in dark legs, only pale yellow vent and narrow wing-bars. Juvenile White Wagtails and Yellow Wagtails can be confused, but White Wagtail is greyer, with big grey breast patch (Yellow Wagtail may show narrow breast band). Closest congener is Citrine Wagtail, which lacks dark lore, has broad wing-bars and grey back.

Sound:

Contact call characteristic and widely used; a sharp, drawn out "pseeeoo" with an accented ending falling in pitch. Song primitive and less striking. A variable phrase with two or three notes resembling the contact call in timbre. Beware differences in calls and songs between different subspecies.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC