The White Wagtail is the most common species of wagtail one in winter on the Maltese Islands. White Wagtails usually start appearing in the second week of October and most remain here until March, with a few lingering on until the first week of April. Occasionally single birds can be seen in May, August and in early September.

The White Wagtail is found throughout Europe, Asia and northwest Africa.  It spends its winter in the Mediterranean, in Africa, Asia Minor and in Western Europe. 

The black, white and grey bird with long tail and dainty gait is unmistakable and can be often seen even on roads and in traffic islands, where it can be seen looking for flies and other insects. When it is stationary, it can often be seen moving its tail. From time to time it makes short runs after insects.

It is usually seen singly, while other birds may also be a short distance away, but it roosts in communal roosts with other White Wagtails, and sometimes with other birds too, namely Spanish Sparrows and Starlings.

In Malta, most of the White Wagtails that spend the winter here roost in the few trees in front of the Law Courts in Valletta. There are other small roosts, but the one in Valletta is by far the largest as it often holds up to 7,000 birds and some of the birds that sleep there every night even cross over from Gozo to do so, and fly back to Gozo the following morning.

It is indeed a pity that these trees are often pruned in such a way that they offer little shelter to these fragile birds. Even more pitiful is the amount of disturbance that takes place right under these trees at night at this and other times of the year.

One wonders whether it is really a must to have loud band music playing in that stretch of road, as we had over the past few days. And while people are unaware about what’s going on around them, the wagtails which were startled in their sleep were flying erratically at night. Quite naturally they flew towards the light there was in the street, and ended up hitting shop windows and flying frantically over people’s heads, trying to find their way back to their roost. Only to be disturbed again by a second band soon after the din of the first had subsided. Who knows how many of them perished that night? Who knows how many slept in places where they were not secure and ended up being killed by cats and rats?

White Wagtails make very long flights on migration. The birds seen in Malta originate from Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Denmark. They also come from Eastern European countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The current Maltese name, Zakak Abjad, was developed from the original name Zakak, which was already in existence in the early 1700s. It is essentially an onomatopoeic name derived from the bird’s call, and the suffix abjad (white) was added to distinguish it from another wagtail that also occurs in winter: the Grey Wagtail (Zakak tad-dell).