Home PageNatural History Grey Wagtail Birds of Devon and Cornwall
Grey Wagtail
Motacilla cinerea - The Grey Wagtail

A far more colourful bird than its name suggests, the grey wagtail has a long tail, slate grey upper-parts and yellow breast, belly and tail. Adult birds have white eyebrows (known as supercilium) and pinkish-brown legs. They can be found over most of Britain, like to be near water and especially fast flowing shallow water. They feed mainly on insects and their long tail helps their agility whilst flying in pursuit of these. Like other wagtails it wags its tail continually and, although we have watched it several times, we have never managed to get a decent photograph! This one will be replaced as soon as we do.