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11 May 2016

Yellow Wagtail - Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area I found two Yellow Wagtails. I am not certain of their subspecies but they may have been poorly marked beema or flava? Yoav Perlman a very experienced birder from Israel, although currently living in the UK, has siad the bird looks good for flava and as he has far greater knowledge than me on this group of birds, this is presumably the subspecies. The Yellow Wagtail is a common passage migrant with various subspecies occurring with the most common being Black-headed Wagtails of the race Motacilla flava feldegg which are the most southerly breeding birds seen in Saudi Arabia breeding from the Balkan countries, through Turkey to eastern Kazakhstan and Sykes's Wagtail Motacilla flava beema, from the northern Kirghiz steppes. They often form flocks of mixed races but just as often are found in single race groups.