The synthesis and molecular structure of pentacarbonyl(3-methyl-l-(pyridin-2-yl)-l,2,4-triazole- N 4)tungsten(0) are described. Surprisingly the ligand is bound to the W(CO) 5 moiety via the triazole N 4 (N24) atom, and the pyridine to triazole link is between the pyridine C 2 (Cl) atom and the N 1 (N21) atom of the triazole ring. The compound crystallises in the space group C2/ c with a=24.559(18), b=9.693(16), c=13.817(12) Å, β=108.48(12)° and Z=8. A full matrix least-squares refinement resulted in a final R=0.052 ( R w=0.065) for 3688 unique reflections.