---
title: "Western Yellow Wagtail"
description: "Motacilla flava — Vogels. The western yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) is a small passerine bird in the wagtail family Motacillidae, which also includes the pipits and longclaws."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/western-yellow-wagtail
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Western Yellow Wagtail

> Motacilla flava — Vogels. The western yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) is a small passerine bird in the wagtail family Motacillidae, which also includes the pipits and longclaws.

- Scientific name: *Motacilla flava*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `grassland` (Weiden en velden)
- iNaturalist observations: 50543
- Wikidata: [Q25984](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25984)
- iNaturalist taxon: [204545](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/204545)

## Names

- en: Western Yellow Wagtail
- de: Schafstelze
- es: Lavandera boyera
- fr: Bergeronnette printanière
- pt: Alvéola-amarela
- pl: Pliszka żółta

## Countries with the most observations

RU (20506), DE (2833), ES (2805), FR (2347), IN (1896), IT (1710), UA (1445), PT (1164), GB (1070), NL (747), GR (688), AT (592)

## Summary

The western yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) is a small passerine bird in the wagtail family Motacillidae, which also includes the pipits and longclaws. This species breeds in much of temperate Europe and Asia. Most populations are migratory, moving south to tropical Africa and southern Asia for the winter; the small population breeding in Egypt is however resident there.
It is a slender 15–16 cm long bird, with the characteristic long, constantly wagging tail of its genus. It is the shortest tailed of the European wagtails. The breeding adult male is basically olive above and yellow below. In other plumages, particularly…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_yellow_wagtail

## Photo

![Western Yellow Wagtail](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/western-yellow-wagtail/medium.jpg)

Photo: Татьяна Горбушина · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/166215511

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/western-yellow-wagtail?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).