By Raghav Narayanswamy

Thanks to CN Lee’s hard work and sharp eyes, as well as Vincent Ng’s follow-up, many of us were fortunate enough to twitch Singapore’s fourth Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola in January. I was lucky to have the opportunity to visit several(…!) times and observe its moult over the course of its 2.5-month stay in Singapore. 

Per Alström commented, based on the first few photos of the bird in January, that it was a first-winter bird based on the very worn wings and whitish underparts. 

Timeline

These two photos were taken less than a week after the bird was first seen by CN on 7 Jan. The extremely worn wings are evident, and there is a broken tail feather on the right side of the tail hanging off from the rest of the tail feathers. The supercilium does not really wrap around the ear-coverts, especially on the right side of the face, and as a result, the ear-coverts are rather indistinctly demarcated – although a little more defined on the left side.

By 4 Feb, the drooping half of the rightmost tail feather broke off completely, leaving only half the feather intact. It looks like at least a couple of the tail feathers, including the outermost on the left side of the tail, are missing as well. The ones which are still there are also in rather poor shape, especially the central few.

These photos were also taken the same day – the ear coverts are also slightly more distinct here compared to in early January, and more flecks of yellow are starting to appear on the lower breast, although the wing feathers are still unmoulted.

By this point, the innermost greater covert on the right wing has dropped off, and there are a few new yellow feathers appearing on the lower belly. The body and wings otherwise look the same as the previous week.

New wing feathers are starting to appear now – there are new greater coverts with the broad white fringes typical of this species, and the central tertial on both wings has also been replaced. 

More new greater coverts are showing here, but it still looks like just the one tertial has been renewed, at least on the right wing.

All the tertials on the right wing have been replaced by this point, but the left wing is still missing the innermost tertial. The underparts are still mostly white despite the addition of a few yellow feathers over the belly.

Now there are three new tertials on the left wing too, along with at least one new median covert. 

As far as I know, there weren’t any further sightings after I last saw the bird on the 23rd.

Overall, a pretty fun thing to do for the few months the bird was around – the Eastern Yellow Wagtails in March and April were quite eye-catching as well!

Photos  Francis Yap (FY), Jared HJ Tan (JHJT), Raghav Narayanswamy (RN), Yip Jen Wei (YJW)

Acknowledgments

Francis, Jared, and Jen Wei graciously contributed photos to this article, and I thank Per Alström, Dave Bakewell, and Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok for their comments on the identification.