Thin, long-tailed birds with long claws on the hallux are birds of grasslands, pastures, and prairies.

Pipits have muted brown plumages, and wagtails are more dapper in their shades of gray, black, and white, often with a patch or wash of yellow. Longclaws combine the browns of one with the yellow (or even red) splashes of the other, and they bear an uncanny resemblance to the meadowlarks (Icteridae) of the New World, in appearance and in their melodious whistled songs. They all share the white outer tail feathers so characteristic of birds of open country. Although only the wagtails translate the meaning of their family’s Latin name (Motacilla means “moving tail”), most motacilids constantly pump their long tails as they walk.

Winkler, D. W., S. M. Billerman, and I. J. Lovette (2020). Wagtails and Pipits (Motacillidae), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.motaci1.01

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85087505

https://avibase.ca/E1FE2A4A

https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/taxon/CYC

Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 178474 https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=178474#null