ES Views: Wild London: Pied wagtails are making a big noise
The pied wagtail, a perky little songbird that is common across Britain, has adapted well to life in the city. They feed on insects, which they pick from the ground or pluck from the air in sudden dashes of agile flight. With busily bobbing tails and distinctive black-and-white plumage, they are as at home in a supermarket car park as a remote Highland valley.
At this time of year, they roam in small, restless flocks, leap-frogging over each other as they chase down low-flying insects, flushed into the air by the birds’ approach. Come evening, larger flocks can form, sometimes in their hundreds, as they seek safety in numbers. The noisy, chirruping birds settle into bushes and trees for the night, sometimes in well-lit streets, car parks and shopping centres.
Perhaps they do this because there is less risk of predation, or simply because such locations can be warmer than the surrounding countryside.
Come spring, they pair up to breed, nesting in nooks and crannies amid the city’s stonework, steelwork and drainpipes. Open-fronted nest boxes may also be used. They weave small cup-shaped nests from grass and moss, laying clutches of five or six eggs, and can raise as many as three broods over the summer.
Although they mostly eat insects, they will search for scraps in car parks, and can visit gardens. If you want to feed them, go for live mealworms, although they may also take peanut granules and sunflower chips, scattered on a lawn.
Pied wagtail are a sub-species of the white wagtail, common across Europe, Asia and parts of Africa. Our birds, with more black on their plumage, have adapted to island life. More northern populations fly south in winter, some as far as France, but come spring they’ll be back to breed!
