I can only speak with confidence about African "Pied" Wagtail
(_Motacilla aguimp_). The ones that hung around my house sang
from my chimney in the mornings were as common as could be, ate
mulberries out of the mulberry tree, picked bugs off the backs of
the ngombe, picked spiders from the eves and poked around on the
ground a bit, too...

And while I think the mystery bird under discussion is more
likely a Northern Mockingbird (based on the initial discription),
wagtails feed pretty much where ever they choose, it's just that
most of us don't get to see them in places with a lot of trees.

osprey at nwinfo.net wrote:
>
> It seems that I remember in the original posting about this bird, which I
> read and deleted, that the observer said that the unidentified bird
> "sometimes fed on the ground". If the bird was seen in trees, that would
> point to Northern Mockingbird because wagtails only feed on the ground.
>
> Denny Granstrand
> Yakima, WA
>


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Mike Patterson Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo,
Astoria, OR it is not enough to be persecuted
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you must also be right.
---Robert Park
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html