Motacilla aguimp
Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on Ren Hathway's illustration · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The African pied wagtail, or African wagtail, (Motacilla aguimp) is a species of bird in the family Motacillidae. A striking black and white wagtail with black upperparts contrasting with white underparts, it has a white supercilium and a white patch in the folded wing. Juvenile birds are greyer, while birds of the nominate subspecies show grey flanks. They are 20 cm (7.9 in) long.
The African pied wagtail is found in sub-Saharan Africa from the Eastern Cape north to extreme southern Egypt and from Guinea to western Eritrea and Somalia. It is a vagrant to Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mauritania,Uganda and the Western Cape.
The African pied wagtail inhabits subtropical or tropical, seasonally wet or flooded, lowland grassland, rivers, and sometimes freshwater marshes. In some areas, it is commensal with humans in towns and villages. In Malawi, African pied wagtails start breeding before the rains and continue to breed into the rainy season; they breed during six months, peaking in March and October. Both the males and females participate in nest building, but only the females incubate, and both sexes feed the young. The mean... Wikipedia →
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report an African Pied Wagtail sighting in Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, based on 78 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 39th most-seen of the 233 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report an African Pied Wagtail in Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, against about 30% in February, the lowest month. That is one of Gonarezhou National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 150 mm in January. March–April, June and December–January have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Pied Wagtail sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 47 parks where we can rate African Pied Wagtail sightings, Gonarezhou National Park ranks 4th at about 50%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in South Luangwa National Park (Zambia, about 50%), Lower Zambezi National Park (Zambia, about 50%) and Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 50%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Pied Wagtail is recorded against all the birds logged in Gonarezhou National Park (78 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
