Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava
Breeding distribution 2007–2012
Local summer visitor; breeds Europe (race flavissima in the UK), winters in Africa
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
Atlas species lists
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More Yellow Wagtail maps
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More maps for this atlas
Map explanation
This map shows the breeding season distribution of the species in Wiltshire as revealed by the shared fieldwork for Bird Atlas 2007-2011 (BTO 2013) and for Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2007-2012.
Key
Status
Nos tetrads
Present
24
3%
Possible breeding
41
4%
Probable breeding
19
2%
Confirmed breeding
24
3%
Total
108
12%
Yellow Wagtails breed from North Africa and western Europe right across Eurasia to western Alaska. They winter in Africa (mostly south of the Sahara), the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia down to north Australia. Not surprisingly, given their wide distribution, there are many subspecies (Handbook of the Birds of the World - Lynx Edicions - lists 17). Most of those seen in Britain belong to the race Motacilla flava flavissima which are also found in coastal areas of mainland Europe from Norway to France. The nominate race, M. flava (" Blue-Headed Yellow Wagtail"), the main continental race, also occurs increasingly in Britain, interbreeding with M.f.flavissima. There has been at least one British record of a pure bred pair successfully nesting.
In Britain they are found mainly in a few scattered areas on the east coast of southern Scotland and then down the eastern side of England with the densest concentrations in East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, the Fens, the Norfolk Broads and the coastal marshes of Essex and Kent. Elsewhere there are smaller populations on the Welsh borders and across central England. This follows a significant range contraction in the last half-century - Bird Atlas 2007-2011 recorded a 31% reduction since the 1968-72 Breeding Atlas, mainly from northwest England, the West Midlands, parts of East Anglia and the southern counties from Devon across to Sussex. This range reduction has been accompanied by a 72% population reduction mainly attributed to habitat loss caused by changes in agricultural methods.
In Wiltshire, Yellow Wagtails were reportedly common in the 19th century, but only "fairly common" in the first half of the 20th century and "far from common" in the 1950s. Birds of Wiltshire recorded them in 127 tetrads, almost all to the north of Salisbury Plain, with breeding reported from 64 tetrads, WTA2 recorded them in 108 tetrads, still almost entirely in the north half of the county, with breeding in only 43
.References
The following references are used throughout these species accounts, in the abbreviated form given in quotation marks:
“1968-72 Breeding Atlas” – Sharrack, J.T.R. 1976: The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1981-84 Winter Atlas” – Lack, P.C. 1986: The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1988-91 Breeding Atlas” – Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. 1993: The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-91. T. & A. Poyser
“Birds of Wiltshire” – Ferguson-Lees, I.J. et al. 2007 : Birds of Wiltshire, published by the tetrad atlas group of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society after mapping fieldwork 1995-2000. Wiltshire Ornithological Society.
“Bird Atlas 2007-2011” – Balmer, D.E., Gillings, S., Caffrey, B.J., Swann, R.L., Downie, I.S. and Fuller, R.J. 2013: Bird Atlas 2007-2011: the Breeding and Wintering Birds of Britain and Ireland
“WTA2” – ("Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2 ") the present electronic publication, bringing together the Wiltshire data from “Birds of Wiltshire” and “Bird Atlas 2007-11”, together with data from further fieldwork carried out in 2011 and 2012.
"Hobby" - the annual bird report of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society.