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Glite Dictionary
wagtail

wagtail

1 7.5
A small bird with a long tail that bobs up and down as it walks
  • noun
  • /ˈwæɡˌteɪl/
  • UK
: agachadiza
  • In consequence, the bird's color pattern now varies geographically, permitting birdwatchers to identify a wagtail's place of birth at a glance.

Examples

  • That gave it away as a yellow wagtail, familiar among biologists as a textbook case of evolution in action.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The evolutionary changes underlying those different faces can be much more easily deciphered than the changes underlying wagtails' various color patterns, since we know far more about human genetics than about wagtail genetics.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Not only wagtails but also humans adapt to the local climate through natural selection.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Because of the bombing, the wagtails are following a completely different trajectory.

    Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

  • The evolutionary changes underlying those different faces can be much more easily deciphered than the changes underlying wagtails' various color patterns, since we know far more about human genetics than about wagtail genetics.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Skylarks, Lapwings, Nightingales, song, thrushes, wagtails, jackdaws.

  • Although the individual I was following belonged to a race that breeds in Europe, I was watching it on its wintering grounds in Israel, where a different race breeds and where several wagtail populations now commingle after their ancient diaspora.

    Academic text (1993)

  • At some time in the past, from some Old World center of origin, an ancestral wagtail population spread out to colonize most of Eurasia, from England east to the Bering Strait and from Lapland south to Egypt.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Besides the Australian Raven and the Willy Wagtail, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes were the most common birds we saw roadside, all the way from outside Perth to Kalbarri.

    Blog text (19)

  • While walking in the park, I spotted a wagtail bobbing its long tail as it searched for insects.

Surface Forms

wagtail singular
wagtails plural

Morphology

wagtail = wag + tail (semi-transparent) = wag + tail

While the components 'wag' and 'tail' are clear, the specific meaning of a bird species is not directly derivable.

Etymology

Wagtail is made of wag and tail, and it describes a small bird whose long tail 'wags', that is, 'moves up and down', as it walks, just like a dog's tail, which is why we call this bird a wagtail.