The Willie Wagtail is distributed throughout Australia though it is only accidental in Tasmania. It is also distributed in New Guinea. It is found in a wide variety of habitats with the exception of dense forest.

As you can see from these photos, it is very black and white with a sharp border on the breast. It has thin, white eye-brows.

Photo 4 shows the sub-species R. l. picata found in the northern third of Australia. It differs from the nominate sub-species found further south (and shown in photos 1, 2 and 3) in being smaller and having a slightly longer bill and longer rictal bristles.