Order: Passeriformes, Family: Motacillidae; Total length: 21 cm; Distribution: Asia, Europe and Africa
Can be seen even in urban areas. Abundant on the ground where there are few plants. The bird wags its tail, which is longer than sparrow's tail. Call is repeated "chi-chin, chi-chin", stronger than sparrow's voice. Alone when active during the day in fall and winter, but they roost in flocks on station buildings or on roadside tree branches.
Play birds singing
Most birds move by hopping on both feet, but birds of Motacillidae are different. They walk by putting one foot after the other like human beings.
During the dinosaurs era, some dinosaurs walked bipedal. Some dinosaurs evolved into birds, and at the same period of time forests grew. Birds needed to catch insects on tree branches. Bird body sizes got smaller and smaller, and birds skipped and moved by hopping on both feet, like a small bird does today.
After that, wagtails moved from forests to flatlands to live, and they started to feed on insects on the ground. It is thought that they adapted to come back to walk on two feet.
Wagtails bob their tails often. It's not clear why they bob their tails.
In “The Birth of the Country,” one of the narratives that appear in the Nihon Shoki, also known as The Chronicles of Japan, the male deity Izanagi-no-mikoto and the female deity Izanami-no-mikoto learn how to make babies by wagging their hips just like a wagtail. That's why the birds are sometimes referred to by such names as Oshie-dori (teaching bird) and Yome oshie-dori (teaching bird for brides). Based on this story, the bird is worshipped at some shrines as the god of safe childbirth.
In the spring, the upper plumage of males turns black, and they are sometimes mistaken for the Japanese Wagtail. Japanese Wagtails live in the middle basin of rivers and are seldom seen in cities. But White Wagtails can be found in downstream reaches, farmlands and in urban areas.
The upper plumage of males in the fall and winter, females and young birds is gray. However, male and female Japanese Wagtails have black backs year-round and a guttural voice.
