The Open Ornithology Journal
2017, 10 : 1-9Published online 2017 January 26. DOI: 10.2174/1874453201710010001
Publisher ID: TOOENIJ-10-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Distribution of Yellow Wagtail Forms – Complex in the North of Western Siberia, Russia
* Address correspondence to this author at the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Division Russian Academy of Sciences, 202/3, 8Marta Str. Ekaterinburg, 620144, Russia; Tel: +7 9221024289; Fax: +7(343)2606500; E-mail: golovatin@yandex.ru
ABSTRACT
On the basis of the materials obtained from the studies carried out from 2000 to 2015, we present the data on distribution of the Yellow Wagtail forms in the north of Western Siberia, i.e. within the overlapping boundaries of the ranges of a complex set of several polytypical forms – Motacilla flava sensu lato. Four forms have been identified here: two forms from the group of Western Yellow Wagtails (M. f. thunbergi and M. f. beema & flava) and two forms from the group of Eastern Yellow Wagtails (M. t. plexa and M. t. tschutschensis). Western “black-headed” form M. f. thunbergi is spread in the area of the northern taiga, forest tundra and south shrub tundra within the Ob River basin, while eastern “black-headed” form M. t. plexa is found in the shrubby tundra and further to the east from the Ob River in forest tundra and northern taiga. Western “light headed” wagtails M. f. beema & flava spread as far as 65º05'N along the floodplain of the Ob River. Eastern “light-headed” wagtail M. t. tschutschensis penetrates the Taz peninsula and, through the anthropogenic sites, the north-east coast of the Yamal Peninsula, i.e. the Sabetta area as far as 71º14'N. The entire range of the Yellow Wagtail is characterized by the interchange of zones inhabited by “black-headed” (without the expressed eyebrows on males) and “light-headed” (with notable eyebrows on males or white-headed) forms from the north to the south.