Warbla

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White wagtail

Motacilla alba · Family Motacillidae

Motacilla alba

Family Motacillidae

Order
Passeriformes
Family
Motacillidae
GBIF occurrence records
6,942,739
Countries and territories with records
160
White wagtail
Jac. Janssen from BAARLO LB, NL · 20180415 015 Winterswijk Witte kwikstaart (40785272624).jpg · CC BY 2.0 · Jac. Janssen from BAARLO LB, NL · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Recordings may be trimmed and re-encoded; photos are cropped and resized.
Play song · Pascal Christe · Motacilla_alba_-_White_Wagtail_XC466458.mp3 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Pascal Christe · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Recordings may be trimmed and re-encoded; photos are cropped and resized.

About this species

This species has 6,942,739 occurrence records from 160 countries and territories (GBIF, 21 October 2026). Most records come from Sweden (14.5%), Spain (10.4%), the United Kingdom (9.8%), France (8.2%) and Norway (7.5%); together they account for 50.4% of the total. In Sweden, this species accounts for 0.99% of all bird records in GBIF.

The scientific name Motacilla alba combines the genus name Motacilla with the species epithet alba. The Warbla app catalog lists 13 species of the genus Motacilla; apart from this one, those with the most GBIF records are Motacilla flava, Motacilla cinerea and Motacilla capensis.

The catalog has GBIF record counts for 68 species of the family Motacillidae. This species has the most records among them. Its record count is 21.5 times the family average (323,139). The family Motacillidae belongs to the order Passeriformes, which has 6,193 species in the Warbla app catalog.

More birds in the family Motacillidae

Credits & data sources