Forest Wagtail
Dendronanthus indicus
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyMotacillidae (Wagtails and Pipits)
- GenusDendronanthus (Forest Wagtails)
- SpeciesDendronanthus indicus (Forest Wagtail)
About the Forest Wagtail
The forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus) is a medium-sized passerine bird in the wagtail family Motacillidae. It has a distinctive plumage that sets it apart from other wagtails and has the habit of wagging its tail sideways unlike the usual up and down movements of the other wagtail species. It is the only wagtail species that nests in trees. It is found mainly in forested habitats, breeding in the temperate parts of east Asia and wintering across tropical Asia from India to Indonesia.
The forest wagtail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla indica. The specific epithet is from Latin indicus meaning "Indian". Gmelin based his account on "La Bergeronnette gris des Indes" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat. The forest wagtail is now the only species placed in the genus Dendronanthus that was introduced in 1844 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. The name Dendronanthus combines the Ancient Greek dendron meaning "tree" with the... Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Taman Negara National Park
Grey Wagtail
Motacilla cinerea
Oriental Pipit
Anthus rufulus
Eastern Yellow Wagtail
Motacilla tschutschensis
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Copsychus saularis
White-rumped Shama
Copsychus malabaricus
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
Dicrurus paradiseus
Brown-cheeked Bulbul
Alophoixus bres
Red-eyed Bulbul
Pycnonotus brunneus
Chestnut-winged Babbler
Stachyris erythroptera
Asian Fairy-bluebird
Irena puella
Black-and-yellow Broadbill
Eurylaimus ochromalus
Stripe-throated Bulbul
Pycnonotus finlaysoni
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there