Willy / Willie Wagtails (Rhipidura leucophrys) are unrelated to Wagtails, they are Fantails.


There was once a bird called Willy Wagtail,
Who was named after a noble male,
When he tore to the sky,
He embraced a mile high,
and recalled he was still land level.


A young man wakes up smothered in his pillow. Blank faced he tilts his head up to breathe in air. He stands, the coldness of the floor sink into his feet as he puts on his shoes, top hat and long coat. Walking to the front door, he opens it and shuts it quietly.

Tip toeing across the wet freshly cut lawn he spots on a fence post a weighty Willy Wagtail. Smiling at the simple beauty as it's tail sways from side to side. He ponders into a park's grass field.

Another Willy Wagtail catches his eye as it flies in close proximity. Tilting his head to the sky briefly to watch the Willy Wagtail disappear. Suddenly, the sky is filled with graceful dark black bodies outlined with outstretched wings, long fanlike tails, and defined white stomachs. They were flying, swooping, descending, acsending and insisting.

He walks into the center of the grass field. He lays down facing the sky, clothes soaking in the wetness of the grass. The Willy Wagtails fly around him, insisting him to stay for hours as they search for insects. The sky overflows with an afternoon's sun shower, he takes cover underneath a Willow tree thankfully listening to the rain pattering against the leaves.

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Sources: dictionary.com