Ashy-headed Wagtail

Motacilla flava cinereocapilla Savi, 1831 (1, 0)

Photo © Kris Webb

Sub-species

STATUS

Italy, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and Slovenia. 

OVERVIEW

Just the single record of this subspecies.

---

RECORD

1). c. 1860 Cornwall Near Marazion, obtained, May.

(Gould, 1873; Penhallurick, 1978; BOURC (2013), Ibis 155: 669).

History Gould (1873 (3): unpaged) under 'Grey-capped Wagtail' says: 'A very beautiful specimen of this Wagtail having been killed in Cornwall, by Mr. Vingoe, of Penzance, it becomes necessary to give a figure and an account of the species in the Birds of Great Britain, which I am happy to do, inasmuch as it affords me an opportunity of giving some further information respecting the puzzling memhers of the genus Budytes....Respecting the specimen killed in Cornwall Mr. Rodd informs me that "it was observed for some days about the place where it was at last captured, viz. amongst some loose cabbage-plants on the ridge of banksand which separates the eastern marsh from the sea-beach, between Penzance and Marazion, very near the Marazion Railway Station. It was in the month of May. It uttered a very neat and melodious song, which, considering the time of the year, may be regarded as a love-song; but no mate was seen at the time."...In conclusion, I may remark that the colouring and markings of the head of the male occasionally present slight differences, some specimens having the crown, lores, and ear-coverts black, others uniform dark sooty grey; and in others, again, the grey is broken by a faint white stripe above the ear-coverts, as seen in the Penzance example.'

Penhallurick (1978: 196) says: 'About 1860 in May, Vingoe shot one, presumably at Marazion, which is illustrated in Gould's Birds of Great Britain.'