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Motacilla alba

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
ANIMALIA CHORDATA AVES PASSERIFORMES MOTACILLIDAE

Scientific Name: Motacilla alba
Species Authority: Linnaeus, 1758
Common Name/s:
English – Pied Wagtail and White Wagtail, White Wagtail
French – Bergeronnette grise
Taxonomic Notes: Motacilla alba and M. lugens (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into M. alba following AOU (2005). Motacilla alba (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split by Sangster et al. (1998) into M. alba, M. alboides, M. baicalensis, M. leucopsis, M. ocularis, M. personata and M. subpersonata but this treatment is not followed by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group because no vocal, morphological or phylogenetic evidence is provides by Sangster et al. (1998) and Alström et al. (2003) notes that all contiguously distributed subspecies of M. alba interbreed. Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993) and Sangster et al. (1998) also split M. lugens from M. alba but these taxa are also lumped following AOU (2005).

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern ver 3.1
Year Published: 2012
Assessor/s: BirdLife International
Reviewer/s: Butchart, S. & Symes, A.
Contributor/s:
Justification:
This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
History:
2009 – Least Concern
2008 – Least Concern
2006 – Least Concern
2004 – Not Recognized
2000 – Not Recognized
1994 – Not Recognized
1988 – Not Recognized

Geographic Range [top]

Countries:
Native:
Afghanistan; Albania; Algeria; Andorra; Armenia (Armenia); Austria; Azerbaijan; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Belarus; Belgium; Benin; Bhutan; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Burkina Faso; Cambodia; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Central African Republic; Chad; China; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Djibouti; Egypt; Eritrea; Estonia; Ethiopia; Faroe Islands; Finland; France; Gambia; Georgia; Germany; Ghana; Gibraltar; Greece; Greenland; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Hong Kong; Hungary; Iceland; India; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Ireland; Israel; Italy; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Latvia; Lebanon; Libya; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macao; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Malaysia; Mali; Malta; Mauritania; Mexico; Moldova; Mongolia; Montenegro; Morocco; Myanmar; Nepal; Netherlands; Niger; Nigeria; Norway; Oman; Pakistan; Palestinian Territory, Occupied; Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Qatar; Romania; Russian Federation; Russian Federation; Russian Federation; San Marino; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Serbia (Serbia); Sierra Leone; Singapore; Slovakia; Slovenia; Somalia; South Sudan; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Svalbard and Jan Mayen; Sweden; Switzerland; Syrian Arab Republic; Taiwan, Province of China; Tajikistan; Thailand; Tunisia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Uganda; Ukraine; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; United States; Uzbekistan; Viet Nam; Western Sahara; Yemen
Vagrant:
Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Burundi; Canada; Comoros; Gabon; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau; Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Seychelles; Tanzania, United Republic of; Togo; Trinidad and Tobago
Present - origin uncertain:
Guam; Rwanda; Zambia; Zimbabwe
Range Map: Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Population [top]

Population: Rich et al. (2004) estimated the global population to number 200,000 individuals. In Europe, the breeding population is estimated to number 13000000-26000000 breeding pairs, equating to 39000000-78000000 individuals (BirdLife International 2004). Europe forms 5-24% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 163000000-1560000000 individuals, although further validation of this estimate is needed.
Population Trend: Decreasing

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Systems: Terrestrial; Freshwater

Bibliography [top]

Ahas, R.; Aasa, A. 2006. The effects of climate change on the phenology of selected Estonian plant, bird and fish populations. International Journal of Biometeorology 51: 17-26.

IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (ver. 2012.1). Available at: http://www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 19 June 2012).

Jenkins, D.; Watson, A. 2000. Dates of first arrival and song of birds during 1974-1999 in mid-Deeside, Scotland. Bird Study 47: 249-251.

Jenni, L.; Kery, M. 2003. Timing of autumn bird migration under climate change: advances in long-distance migrants, delays in short-distance migrants. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 270(1523): 1467-1471.

Sokolov, L. V.; Gordienko, N. S. 2008. Has recent climate warming affected the dates of bird arrival to the Il'men Reserve in the Southern Urals? Russian Journal of Ecology 39: 56-62.

Tryjanowski, P.; Kuzniak, S.; Sparks, T. H. 2002. Earlier arrival of some farmland migrants in western Poland. Ibis 144: 62-68.

Vahatalo, A. V.; Rainio, K.; Lehikoinen, A.; Lehikoinen, E. 2004. Spring arrival of birds depends on the North Atlantic Oscillation. Journal of Avian Biology 35: 210-216.
Citation: BirdLife International 2012. Motacilla alba. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 24 May 2013.
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