Pied wagtail

These funny, quick little birds like to live in towns, because it’s easy for them to find food there. They scavenge for insects and little crumbs of food on flat surfaces, like the sidewalk.

Pied wagtails are slim birds. They have a white face and belly, and their back is black. They have black and white bars on their tail and wings, which you can see very well while they’re flying.

Size: 18 cm

Sound: the pied wagtail makes a sound like ‘chiss-wick’ mixed with quick chirps and twitters.

The pied wagtail, and other kinds of wagtail, got their name because… They like to wag their tails! The often do this while hopping around or standing still. No one is quite sure yet why they wag their tails. Maybe it’s just fun to do!

Noel Reynolds, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons