White wagtail alboides – Male, Bhutan

The white wagtail is an insectivorous bird of open country, often near habitation and water. It prefers bare areas for feeding, where it can see and pursue its prey. In urban areas it has adapted to foraging on paved areas such as car parks. It nests in crevices in stone walls and similar natural and man-made structures. The white wagtail is the national bird of Latvia. The subspiecies alboides is found in the himalaya and sorrounding area. This subspecies has a black back and a lot of black around the head, a white wing panel and white edges on the secondaries and tertials.

It feeds on terrestrial and aquatic insects and other small invertebrates form the major part of the diet. These range from beetles, dragonflies, small snails, spiders, worms, crustaceans, to maggots found in carcasses and, most importantly, flies in the order Diptera. It is classified as least concern by IUCN.