45
An early and the first 
documented records of 
Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola 
in Montenegro
Prvo dokumentirano opazovanje 
citronaste pastirice Motacilla citreola 
v Črni gori
Peter Sackl
 Universalmuseum Joanneum, Biowissenschaften, 
Weinzöttelstraße 16, A  – 8045 Graz, Austria; 
e-mail: peter.sackl@museum-joanneum.at
Since the 1980s, Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola 
has been known as a rare vagrant in most Central 
and West European countries (Lexington et al. 
1991, Snow & Perrins 1998). The recent increase of 
observations outside its regular distribution appears 
to be linked to the species’ westward expansion in 
western Russia and Ukraine (Meissner & Skakuj 
1997, Muraviev et al. 2014). Additionally, iden-
tification techniques and the identification skills 
of many birdwatchers  – in particular of birds in 
variable 1st winter plumages – have advanced con-
siderably over the last decades (e.g., Barthel 1990, 
Alström & Mild 2003). With occasional nesting 
records outside the species’ regular breeding area, 
scattered but established populations currently exist 
in Belarus, the Baltic states and Poland (Meissner 
& Skakuj 1997, Snow & Perrins 1998).
At present, the first records of Citrine Wagtail in 
former Yugoslavia, and in particular Montenegro, 
remain unclear. On 26 Apr 1987 an adult male was 
observed in the Sečovlje Salina, Slovenia, which 
is  – as far as I know  – the first published record 
for the former Yugoslav countries (Polak 1987, 
Hanžel & Šere 2011). In Croatia, the species was 
reported for the first time in May and Sept 1997 
when a total of four birds were caught during 
ringing operations at Lake Vransko in northern 
Dalmatia (Stipčević et al. 2000). In Apr 2014 
and in Apr 2015, respectively, Hulo (2013/14) 
and Dervović (2014/16) added the species to the 
bird lists of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 
addition, from May – Jun 2016 territorial birds and 
a female which was, obviously, feeding small chicks 
were present at Vlasina Reservoir in south-eastern 
Serbia (Medenica & Mirić 2015/16). While the 
latter constitutes the first nesting record on the 
Balkan Peninsula, the species is to my knowledge 
not known from the Autonomous Province of 
Kosovo and Metohjia/Republic of Kosovo (Šciban 
et al. 2015) and the present Republic of Macedonia 
(Velevski & Vasić 2017). 
For Montenegro, Citrine Wagtail is not listed 
in the digital Avibase bird check-list of the country 
(http://avibase.bsc-eco.org; last update 2 May 
2006) as well as in the most recent bird list after 
the independence of Montenegro from the former 
State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006 
(Saveljić & Jovićević 2015). In the course of an 
evaluation of the species’ status in the country, 
after two current sightings in the Bojana-Buna 
river delta, I came upon the obituary of British 
ornithologist Bob Scott (1938–2009), published 
in The Times (London) on 4 April 2009 and 
in British Birds (Newell 2009). Both sources 
mention, besides a number of new species Mr. Scott 
added to the British list as well as the check-lists 
of some other countries, a first record of Citrine 
Wagtail in Montenegro, but without any further 
details.
The short reference to the first sighting in 
„Yugoslavia (Apr 1987)” in Lexington et al. (1991: 
327), later cited by Hadarics & Pellinger (1993), 
apparently concerns the Slovene bird in Sečovlje 
(Polak 1987). According to the wife of Bob Scott, 
Ann, the early Montenegrin record should have 
been published by a library or university in former 
Yugoslavia. Because I could not find any other 
publication referring to the record in Montenegro, 
the relevant observation was probably never formally 
published. However, a friend of Mrs. and Mr. Scott 
who was with the group of British ornithologists in 
Yugoslavia, remembers the bird and is certain that 
the sighting was made at the Ulcinj Salina in May 
1982 (A. Scott in litt., 21 May 2016). Two more 
recent observations in Montenegro concern a male 
in the Ulcinj Salina on 3 May 2013 and a female 
which a holiday group of Austrian birdwatchers 
noted in the Tivat Salina, Boka Kotorska, on 17 Apr 
2014. Consequently, unaware of the 1982 sighting in 
Ulcinj, Stumberger & Samwald (2016) suppose 
Acrocephalus 39 (176/177): 45–48, 2018
10.1515/acro-2018-0005
46
that their observations may constitute the first 
records for Montenegro.
Following to the bird in Tivat in 2014, two 
more Citrine Wagtails were sighted at the Ulcinj 
Salina: on 18 Mar 2016 I noticed a male in breeding 
plumage within a lose flock of approximately 25 
White Motacilla alba and a few Yellow Wagtails 
Motacilla flava ssp. cinereocapilla. During the 
late afternoon I was able to observe the bird 
while feeding in the mudflats of lowly flooded 
evaporation basins for 2 – 3 hours, before the whole 
group was flushed by the locals. The single male 
showed a comparably narrow black to blackish-grey 
nape-band, interrupted on both sides, and rather 
narrow to almost lacking white tips and white 
edges on the outer greater coverts (Fig. 1). Both 
characteristics are indicative for 1st summer males as 
well as the form werae which shows only slight and 
inconsistent differences to the nominate subspecies 
citreola (Alström & Mild 2003). Finally, on 20 
Nov 2017 I managed to shoot some pictures of a 
bird in 1st winter plumage on the salina’s main dam, 
close to the evaporation basins where I saw the male 
in spring 2016 (Figure 2). This bird was also loosely 
associated with 8  – 10  mainly 1st winter White 
Wagtails, a seasonally late male Yellow Wagtail 
in winter plumage, and some Water Pipits Anthus 
spinoletta. 
The late Bob Scott was a renowned ornithologist, 
well-respected for his identification skills, who 
served until his death as a member of the British 
Ornithologist’s Union Council (BOU) and the 
Rarities Committee for the Seychelles (Newell 
2009). Hence, there remains no doubt as to the 
identification of the bird in the Ulcinj Salina in 
May 1982 which, by preceding the first published 
sightings in Slovenia and Croatia, constitutes the 
first record of the species in the former Yugoslavian 
countries. While the rather late records in, 
particularly, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as well 
Figure 1: Male Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola with male Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava cinereocapilla, Salina Ulcinj, 
Montenegro, 18 Mar 2016 (photo: P. Sackl)
Slika 1: Samec citronaste pastirice Motacilla citreola s samcem rumene pastirice Motacilla flava cinereocapilla, 
Ulcinjske soline, Črna gora, 18. 3. 2016 (foto: P. Sackl)
Figure 2: Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola, 1st winter, 
Ulcinj Salina, Montenegro, 20 Nov 2017 (photo: P. 
Sackl)
Slika 2: Citronasta pastirica (Motacilla citreola), 1y, 
Ulcinjske soline, Črna gora, 20. 11. 2017 (foto: P. Sackl)
P. Sackl: An early and the first documented records of Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola in Montenegro
47
as a gap of more than 30 years until the more recent 
observations in Montenegro since 2013, may derive 
from the political and economic upheavals after the 
last Balkan Wars, a total of five sightings of Citrine 
Wagtail are currently on record for the country.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Ann Scott (Buckden, Cam-
bridgeshire, UK) for her generosity to reconstruct 
her husband’s record in Montenegro. Jurij Hanžel 
(Ljubljana) provided essential literature. This paper 
was prepared in cooperation with the Centar za 
zaštitu i proučavanje ptica Crne Gore (CZIP) 
within the framework of Euronatur’s Adriatic 
Flyway Project II.
Povzetek
S ciljanim pregledom literature in neobjavljenih 
virov sem ovrednotil status citronaste pastirice 
Motacilla citreola v Črni gori. Prvo opazovanje je iz 
maja 1982, ko je skupina britanskih ornitologov pod 
vodstvom Boba Scotta opazovala en osebek. To je 
hkrati tudi prvo opazovanje na zahodnem Balkanu. 
Po več kot tridesetih letih brez novih opazovanj je 
bila vrsta spet opazovana v Ulcinjskih (maj 2013, 
marec 2016, november 2017) in Tivatskih solinah 
(april 2014), skupno je iz Črne gore torej znanih pet 
podatkov.
Abstract
For evaluating the current status of Citrine Wagtail 
Motacilla citreola in Montenegro, all available 
sightings were compiled from published and 
unpublished personal sources. A hitherto hardly 
known record of the species for the country by a 
holiday group of British birdwatchers, under the 
guidance of renowned ornithologist Bob Scott 
(1938–2009), dates from May 1982. The sighting 
in the Ulcinj Salina, in 1982, constitutes the first 
record of Citrine Wagtail in Montenegro and in 
the Western Balkans. More than 30 years later the 
species was sighted, between 2013 and 2017, again 
in the Ulcinj Salina (May 2013, Mar 2016, Nov 
2017) and in the former Tivat Salina (Apr 2014). 
Hence, five observations are currently on record for 
Montenegro. 
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Prispelo / Arrived: 28. 1. 2018
Sprejeto / Accepted: 26. 2. 2018
P. Sackl: An early and the first documented records of Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola in Montenegro