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more wagtail comments



I posted a query on the Frontiers of Field ID e-mail group 
(http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdwg01.html) asking for opinions on  
the subspecific ID of the White Wagtail and got about a dozen replies.  
There consensus was that the bird is definitely of the nominate subspecies, 
Motacilla alba alba, citing many of the features Mike Skakuj mentioned.

This is not the first documented record for North America, as David Sibley 
originally suspected, since there was an adult phographed in Quebec on 4 May 
2002.  There may also be a sight record in Nova Scotia.  There's a dot for 
White Wagtail in Michigan in the Sibley guide, but this it's listed as 
Motacilla alba/lugens on the official Michigan list.  I checked the 1957 AOU 
check-list (the last edition to mention subspecies) and the only records of  
 M. a. alba mentioned for North America are as a breeder in Greenland and as 
accidental in northern Ungava (Quebec).  This bird may still be a first for 
the United States!

The South Carolina White Wagtail (April 1998), by the way, was identified as 
an adult male of the Asian subspecies M. a. ocularis.  So when M. a. 
ocularis and M. a. alba are split, those of you who saw both can add another 
tick to your North American list!  (I am not THAT lucky.)

The photos of the Falls Lake bird are at 
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/pix/whitewagtail.html
(Are any photos of the SC bird online?)


-- 
Charles W. "Will" Cook                  w 919-660-7423
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook            cwcook@duke.edu
Biology Dept., Duke Univ., Box 90340, Durham, NC 27708