In Pursuit of Rarities: White Wagtail in Santa Cruz

White Wagtails are one of the most familiar species of songbird across much of Europe and Asia, but here in North America, any time one of these Old World beauties shows up as a vagrant, it causes quite the stir in the birding community.  And just before Christmas, that is exactly what happened on the coast of Central California, near the beach town of Santa Cruz.

Rare White Wagtail in Santa Cruz, California


Earlier this week, Eric and I drove over to Wilder Ranch State Park, where this bird has been reliably re-found almost daily for the last three weeks, to try to get a glimpse of this rarity.  The catch was that this small seven-inch-long black-and-white bird had been hanging out on a beach that is closed to human visitors (to protect Snowy Plover nesting habitat) and viewable only from a cliff-top overlook.  The beach is nearly a quarter of a mile in length, and at times the wagtail was reported to have been spotted only very distantly, way down at the far end of the beach.  

Happily for us, when we arrived the White Wagtail was obligingly bopping around on the near side of the beach, and Eric quickly picked it out amid the driftwood and beach wrack.  

Spot the bird: dead center of the photo


In this beach habitat, and from our vantage point on the bluffs above, I was really struck by how small the wagtail looked and how well its black-and-white plumage allowed it to melt into the landscape of white sand, dark dried kelp and harsh mid-day shadows.

White Wagtails are denizens of open habitats, including beaches, tundra, meadows and shorelines, which they share with their close cousins, the pipits.  These small songbirds hunt for their insect prey by walking along the ground with their distinctive tail-bobbing gait, then making quick dashes on foot or short flights a few inches into the air to nab flying insects.  Watching this bird actively foraging along the beach was such fun!

White Wagtail (Presumed Black-backed (lugens) subspecies - though I'm open to correction)


Ornithologists have identified up to eleven subspecies of White Wagtail across Europe and Asia, all of which show slight variations in plumage.  This particular subspecies of White Wagtail breeds largely in Russia (most likely the Kamchatka Peninsula if it is indeed the lugens subspecies, or Siberia if it's the ocularis subspecies), though some do breed in extreme western Alaska as well.  It looks notably different from those that we saw when we were in Switzerland, which were the alba subspecies (pictured below).

White Wagtail in Switzerland


Birding is always fun, but when a chase for a rare bird pays off and you get to enjoy observing a new species, the day is extra special!


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