I was hoping to score some nice Ashy-headed Wagtails in Sicily, and so I did. Only at one site I visited though - the wetlands at Granelli. Only managed to get one distant shot of a 'textbook' Ashy-headed though:
Ashy-headed Wagtail, Granelli, 1st May 2012
One bird was much closer, and as it was singing its heart out and clearly holding territory it should have been Ashy-headed... but what about that supercilium?
flava Wagtail holding territory, Granelli, 3rd May 2012
Now, is it me, or does this look rather like a Spanish Wagtail iberiae? Are there Spanish Wagtails breeding in Sicily? I saw iberiae in Portugal a few years ago and I think most of them had a narrower supercilium in front of the eye, but variable. Or is it an intergrade/hybrid (with Blue-headed?)? Or can Ashy-headed Wagtail look like this? What would you think it was if you saw it in England?
Here's another. This one was in the same area and looked more like Blue-headed, showing both a pale supercilium and pale in the middle of the ear-coverts. But the tone of grey on the head - that didn't look like Blue-headed.
flava Wagtail, Granelli, 28th April 2012
So help me out - what are we dealing with here?
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