A large breeding colony of Citrine 
Wagtails in eastern Turkey 
Geir S Andersen, Magne Klann, Gunnar Sandve & Bjorn Olav 
Tveit 
On 5 June 1992, during a visit to eastern Turkey, we found great numbers 
of Citrine Wagtails Motacilla citreola at Cildir Golii. Cildir Golii is a large 
saline lake at an altitude of 1970 m, close to the Armenian and Georgian 
borders. It is surrounded by fields, stony hills, and small patches of wet 
grassland and marsh. It is listed by OSME (Bulletin 27, p29) as a site from 
which ornithological observations are required. 
We found Citrine Wagtails at two localities to the extreme south of the 
lake - the only two localities we checked. These were the two wetlands 
on the eastern side of the lake that looked most interesting from the main 
road. 
The first was a small delta at the mouth of the southern river. We saw 
about 10 Citrine Wagtails along the river, on ploughed fields, in the delta 
and on the shoreline. The birds were well spaced out and were mostly 
searching for food. Two females were seen chasing each other in the 
wetter part of the delta. Only three or four of the birds were adult males. 
The second locality was a couple of kilometres farther north on the 
eastern side of the lake. Here, a larger wetland lay around and between 
two streams, and between the shoreline and the main road. This areas 
abounded with Citrine Wagtails. We counted about 40, mainly males. 
They seemed to have territories in the wetter part of the marsh, standing 
erect on tussocks, flying short distances, chasing each other and being 
chased themselves by black-headed Yellow Wagtails M flava fcldegg. 
The behaviour of the citrine wagtails left us in no doubt that they were 
breeding, but as we didn't see any carrying food we presume that most 
of the females were incubating or had not yet laid eggs. 
• 1 *^*5s^ 
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