The pied wagtail (Motacilla alba), as it is referenced on iNaturalist, or white wagtail as it is referenced on Birds of the World, is a bird I'd seen previously, in Lisbon, Portugal, for example, but had never gotten a recognizable photo of one. I finally photographed a couple of them on the grounds of Kilkenny Castle in County Kilkenny, Ireland on July 5, 2024. The pictures were taken with a cellphone and are not good quality. I posted unedited photos on iNaturalist and got 4 identifiers to agree with the assessment. For this post I've cropped and edited the photos in Lightroom to provide a grainy, but better view.
There are 11 subspecies, 9 recognized by everyone and 2 less universally recognized. I saw ssp. yarellii which is found in Ireland and Great Britain. The ssp. in the north part of the range winter in North Africa and Spain, while those in the southern part of the range are resident year-round. This ssp. has a blacker back than the nominate ssp., and is thus also known as the black-backed wagtail. The black of the throat continues on the side of the neck.
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| Illustration of a ssp. yarellii female from Birds of the World. |
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| Illustration of ssp. yarellii male from Birds of the World. |
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| Range map from Birds of the World. |
On December 18, 2024, while doing the Central Range in Kaziranga NP in India, we saw a different ssp., alboides, found in the area around the Himalayas. It has a black back, a lot of black around the head, a white wing panel, and white edges on the secondaries and tertials.
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| This illustration of ssp. alboides, aka Hodgson's white wagtail, is of a female. |
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| This illustration is of the male ssp. of alboides, Hodgson's white wagtail. |
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