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.
