The yellow wagtail (photo on the right and below) belongs to the Wagtail family. This small bird weighs only 17 g, and its body is no more than 17 cm long. Like all birds of this family, its tail is thin and long. Wagtail is characterized by tail shaking. The lower part of the bird is painted yellow, its back is olive-gray. There are white stripes on the dark brown wings. The tail is black in color along the edges with white stripes. A gray or black cap is clearly visible on the male’s head. The female also has it, but it is brownish-gray in color and indistinctly expressed. The legs and beak of the bird are black. Young yellow wagtail brownish-gray.
In Russia, the bird lives almost everywhere. The exception is the Caucasus, the tundra and the southern regions of Sakhalin. Yellow wagtail is widespread in northern Africa, North America and Eurasia, except for the Far North, Southeast Asia and mountain systems. It is mainly a migratory bird, but in some southern areas it prefers a settled lifestyle. It lives in low-lying areas of the forest-steppe and forest zones, in swampy meadows and in river valleys. Can settle on grassy swamps overgrown with shrubs. You can hardly meet her in the taiga, although it happens that it settles along the banks of rivers. Nesting density varies greatly. Somewhere there are single nests, and somewhere dense settlements are formed.
A yellow wagtail arrives at the nesting site as soon as the snow has melted and green grass appears. It all depends on latitude. If these are areas of central Russia, then it appears there after the first half of April, and in Siberia - not earlier than the first half of May.
The yellow wagtail prefers to settle near the water. It can be wet meadows, lakes and rivers. He loves wagtail and swamps overgrown with shrubs. She selects a nesting place for several days, carefully inspecting every corner. A wagtail arranges a bird's nest on the ground, choosing a suitable hole, covered with a bump, bush or grass. When ravens, dogs or people appear near the nest, they are very anxious. And if vacationers often appear in the place of her nesting, she will simply leave her place of residence.
The nest is a shallow cup, which is built from small twigs, leaves, grass stems and roots. The bottom is always lined with hair and wool. Clutch is no more than 5 eggs of greenish or yellowish color with a dense brown or gray speck. The incubation period lasts no more than 13 days, and only two weeks the chicks are in the nest. It happens that the yellow wagtail manages to make two masonry over the summer.
By their movements, these birds strongly resemble white wagtails. But unlike them, they prefer to search for their prey on the ground, and not in the air. They fly nimbly low above the ground and quickly move on it. They feed on all kinds of small invertebrates. The diet includes bugs and weevils, spiders, leaf-eaters and caterpillars, flies and mosquitoes, butterflies and ants.
Somewhere in the middle of summer, adult birds begin to roam with their offspring in swampy places. And already from mid-August to the second half of October they go to their wintering places. Migration takes place in
South Asia, Africa, the islands of the Malay archipelago or the Philippines.