Dendronanthus indicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus) is a medium-sized passerine bird in the wagtail family Motacillidae. It has a distinctive plumage that sets it apart from other wagtails and has the habit of wagging its tail sideways unlike the usual up and down movements of the other wagtail species. It is the only wagtail species that nests in trees. It is found mainly in forested habitats, breeding in the temperate parts of east Asia and wintering across tropical Asia from India to Indonesia.
The forest wagtail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla indica. The specific epithet is from Latin indicus meaning "Indian". Gmelin based his account on "La Bergeronnette gris des Indes" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat. The forest wagtail is now the only species placed in the genus Dendronanthus that was introduced in 1844 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. The name Dendronanthus combines the Ancient Greek dendron meaning "tree" with the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 3 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 7 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Khao Luang National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 9 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 11 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 12 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 13 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 14 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 16 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 17 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 18 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 19 | Danum Valley Conservation Area | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 20 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 21 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tamluk | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 3 | Yangon | 🇲🇲 Myanmar | |
| 4 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 5 | Chennai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Hangzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 8 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 10 | Mysuru | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Forest Wagtail sighting in Wilpattu National Park on a given day, based on 40 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 109th most-seen of the 169 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and November–December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Forest Wagtail in Wilpattu National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May–July and October, the lowest months. Those are among Wilpattu National Park's wettest months, with about 180 mm of rain a month against 40 mm in February.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Forest 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.
3rd of 21
Of the 21 parks where we can rate Forest Wagtail sightings, Wilpattu National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%) and Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Forest Wagtail is recorded against all the birds logged in Wilpattu National Park (40 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.
