Memorandum to: The Director of Birds Australia

From: Birds Australia Rarities Committee (BARC)

Date: 16^th March 2006

Voting Members: Tony Palliser Glenn Holmes

Rohan Clarke Danny Rogers

John Hatch Andrew Silcocks

Jamie Matthew Mike Carter

cc: Ron Johnstone

Submission No 461: Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea, Adele Island, WA. 20^th November 2004 (Unpublished). Submitted by: Adrian Boyle, Tim Gale and Lisa Collins.

A Grey Wagtail was observed on the 20th November 2004 during a Shorebird survey on Adele Island (16ºo51’S 122ºo06’E) 150km north of Cape Leveque, WA. It was feeding along a recent high-tide line on the beach. Whilst viewing this bird a Yellow Wagtail (M. Flava) was heard and then seen feeding along the same tide line but approx 100m from the foraging Grey Wagtail. This provided the observers with a comparison between the two species.

The bird was viewed over a period of 20 minutes before the observers had to leave the bird and continue the survey work. Subsequent visits to the area failed to find either the Grey or Yellow Wagtail.

The photographs and description provided confirm the identity beyond any doubt and point towards a sub-adult individual. Members voted unanimously in favour of acceptance.

This record is the 16th Grey Wagtail to be accepted by BARC.

Verdict: Accepted

References & Bibliography:

· Robson, C. 2000. A Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

· Alstrom, P. and Mild, K., (2003), Pipits & Wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America, Christopher Helm (Publishers), London.

Tony Palliser

Chairman Birds Australia Rarities Committee (BARC)

Bare parts

Bill appeared dark brown to black on the upper mandible. The lower mandible showed a pinkish base which then diffused into the same colour as the upper mandible towards the end of the bill.

Eye colour was dark

Legs were pink

Upperparts

This bird was uniform grey on top of its head, neck, ear coverts and cheeks; this colour then ran down the whole of its back and upper wing coverts.

A white supercilium was very obvious. It started in the lores, passed through and just above the eye and continued to the rear of the ear coverts.

The bird had dark grey-black primaries with no white wing bars showing when wing was in folded position. The wing pattern in flight was not noted or seen well.

Rump color was hard to see when the bird was walking but in flight it showed a yellow rump, but not as bright as the under tail-coverts.

The tail was very long for a Motacilla Wagtail and appeared all dark grey-black until the bird flew or it darted quickly to catch a small insect. This then showed very obviously a large white stripe running up and down several of the outer tail feathers.

Underparts

The most striking feature of the underparts was the very bright yellow under tail coverts.

This yellow then made its way to the start of the flanks of the bird. The bright and uniform yellow blended into the white of its belly behind the legs.

The yellow on the under tail coverts and vent joined the yellow on the rump as well.

The throat was clean white and merged with a slightly darker off white on the upper and lower breast.

Call

The bird was only heard to call once in flight when initially flushed. It was recorded as a double note TZIT TZIT. The observer who heard the call is very familiar with the calls of Yellow Wagtail and it was instantly noted that it sounded different to the call of this species. No attempt has been made to describe the differences between the two calls by the observer.

Age, Sex and Race

The age of the bird appears to be a adult bird in winter plumage base on bright white supercillium and bright yellow under-tail coverts. Photos of this bird were sent to David James who lives on Christmas Island and is familiar Grey Wagtails for his comments . These comments are attached to this report. The sex of the bird is unknown.

The race is presumed to be cinerea due to the range of that race being closest to Australia and also the other possible races are very restricted in their range.

Identification

The observers feel that the identification to Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) is pretty straightforward. The attached photos clearly show the bird was a Motacilla Wagtail.

There are 2 other species of Motacilla with which Grey Wagtail could be confused: with Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) and Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava)

Citrine Wagtail can be ruled out due to the lack of yellow in the face. The Adele Island bird also differed in having yellow in the rump and under-tail coverts, and in having pink legs rather than black legs.

Yellow Wagtail can be ruled out by length of tail and call. The Adele Island bird also differed from Yellow Wagtail in having uniform grey (not greenish) upperparts, pink legs (not black), yellow rump and the brightness of the under tail coverts.

Optics used

Observers viewed the Wagtail using Leica 10x42 BA and Nikon 8x25 AP 051016 binoculars.

All observers had Kowa tsn 1 Telescopes and photos were taken using a Nikon Coolpix 4500 attached to one of the telescopes.

Thanks to

Danny Rogers and Chris Hassell for commenting on a draft of this submission.

David James for comments on the ageing and sexing of Grey Wagtails. (see attached)

Other records

If this record is accepted it will be the 14^th accepted record for Australia and the 3^rd for Western Australia. (BARC cases 347 and 407)

REFERENCES

Alstrom, P. and Mild, K., (2003), Pipits & Wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America, Christopher Helm (Publishers), London.

Morcombe, M., (2000), Field Guide to Australian Birds, Steve Parish Publishing, Archerfield.

Simpson, K & Day N., (1993), Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Penguin, Melbourne.

Slater, P., Slater, P., & Slater, R., (2001), The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds,

Reed New Holland, Sydney.

Birds Australia Rarities committee Web Site http://users.bigpond.net.au/palliser/barc/barc-home.html