A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1054 entries
wagtail
A wagtail is a slender long-tailed bird of open ground and water margins that walks rather than hops and pumps its tail up and down continuously while it does. It feeds by running after insects on the ground and by flycatching in short sallies. Several species range across Europe, Asia, and Africa, and they roost communally in winter, sometimes in the hundreds in a single tree.
Etymology
The English name is for the tail motion and needs no explaining. What is not explained is the motion itself. It has been argued over for a long time, and the proposals include signaling to a predator that the bird has seen it, flushing insects out of cover, and social signaling between birds, with the evidence pointing most strongly at the first.
Notes
Gray wagtails, despite the name, are the ones with a brilliant yellow underside, and they are birds of fast rocky streams rather than of gardens. Pied wagtail winter roosts favor sheltered heated places, so supermarket car parks, greenhouses, and street trees in town centers can hold huge numbers, arriving at dusk from many miles out and leaving before light.