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Mekong Wagtail
Plate 1 of 4. (c) Wich’yanan (Jay) Limparungpatthanakij, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Wich’yanan (Jay) Limparungpatthanakij · via iNaturalist
IUCN NT · Near threatened

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Mekong Wagtail

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Mekong Wagtail

Motacilla samveasnae

The Mekong wagtail (Motacilla samveasnae) is a species of bird in the family Motacillidae. It was first described in 2001 and named in honour of the late Cambodian ornithologist Sam Veasna. It is a black and white bird, similar in appearance to the African pied wagtail, although their ranges do not overlap. Its facial features and distinctive voice distinguish it from other black and white wagtails in southeastern Asia.

The Mekong wagtail is found in the Mekong valley of Cambodia and Laos, and is a non-breeding visitor to Thailand and Vietnam. Its typical habitat is rocky areas beside fast-flowing stretches of river where seasonal flooding occurs. Although tolerant of humans, it is threatened by large scale alterations to its habitat such as inundation of riverine habitat following damming of the river.

Continue reading on Wikipedia

From the article Mekong wagtail on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section

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Description

The Mekong wagtail most closely resembles African pied wagtail M. aguimp, although two species ranges are far apart. It differs from M. agiump in several minor respects, particularly wing pattern, and its vocalisations are very distinctive. It is a very distinctive species and is the only black-and-white wagtail in South-East Asia which exhibits the plumage character combination of black forehead, lores and ear coverts, obvious white supercilia, with white a throat and neck patch.

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Range & habitat

The Mekong River breeding in Cambodia and Laos, but apparently it is a non breeding visitor to Thailand. It also occurs in Vietnam.

Wikipedia: “Distribution”

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Motacilla samveasnae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 73068.