Eastern Yellow Wagtail

The eastern yellow wagtail is a small wagtail that breeds in the eastern Palearctic and Alaska and migrates to South Asia and Australia. It was usually classified as a subspecies of the western yellow wagtail until it was split in 2003, when genetic data showed that grouping did not include all descendants of a common ancestor, since it left out the citrine wagtail. Four subspecies are recognised (Wikipedia, general species account).

The species name comes from the Chukchi Peninsula in eastern Russia, from a bird probably caught on Cook's third voyage (Wikipedia, general species account).