Wagtails and pipits | Motacillidae

Kwikstaarten en piepers | Lavanderas y bisbitas

These are slender ground birds with a thin bill and a long tail, which walk over open country instead of hopping and pump the tail up and down continually as they go, and again the moment they land; at a distance that movement is the most reliable mark of the family, though what it is for has not been settled. In part of the family the hind claw is strikingly long and straight, which suits a life among grass and on flat bare ground. Food is insects picked from the surface while walking, along water margins, on mudflats and beaches, on tundra and in short grassland. Since there are no song posts in such open country, the male climbs steeply in the breeding season, sings high in the air and then sinks back down on stiff, raised wings; some species keep that flight up for a very long time. The nest lies in a hollow on the ground, tucked under a grass tussock or an overhanging edge, often with a run leading to it. Outside the breeding season they feed in loose flocks on bare fields and shores.