Birdwatching - 2147 🐦

🦉 The white wagtail (Motacilla alba)

• Motacilla lat .: mōto, mōtare move continuously, -cilla tail (cilla like a tail - only in ornithology, erroneous established name)
• alba (lat.) white

This slender graceful bird arrives in early spring, when the snow is still beginning to melt and streams are running. And this is very surprising, because the bird is insectivorous, and at this time there are no insects yet, although there probably are, because it eats someone.
In the old days it was called "ice breaker", because at this time these birds would arrive and walk on the ice and shake their tails. The third photo is just about this.

These birds live everywhere. In city yards, in forests, and along the coast. They fly away for the winter quite late by the standards of insectivorous birds. It happened that I met them in mid-October, in cold, damp weather.