American Pipit

Anthus rubescens

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family MOTACILLIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

The American Pipit is a small, slender, drab bird of open country. Although it appears similar to sparrows, it can be distinguished by its thin bill and its habit of bobbing its tail.

Cool Facts

• The American Pipit was long known as the Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta ), a wide ranging species with seven subspecies occurring from the shores of Great Britain and Scandinavia, and the high mountains of Europe and central Asia, to North America. Recent taxonomic studies, however, have shown that the three North American subspecies, along with the most eastern Asiatic one, are best regarded as a distinct species.
• In an alpine population in the Beartooth Mountains of Wyoming, a snow storm buried 17 American Pipit nests for 24 hours. All of the nestlings that were 11 days or older survived, but only a few of the younger ones did.

Description

• Size: 14-17 cm (6-7 in)
• Wingspan: 27 cm (11 in)
• Weight: 19-26 g (0.67-0.92 ounces)

• Medium-sized songbird.
• Brown and striped.
• Thin bill.
• White outer tail feathers.
• Bobs tail up and down.

• Grayish or brownish upperparts with very faint streaks.
• Broad streaks on breast and flanks.
• Upper mandible notched near tip.
• Claw on hind toe long.
• Bill blackish, with lower mandible pale near base.
• Eyes dark brown.
• Legs brownish black.

Breeding (Alternate) Plumage: Back grayish olive. Eyestripe buffy. Underparts buffy with variable amount of dusky streaking; may be nearly unstreaked.
Nonbreeding (Basic) Plumage: Upper parts dark olive-brown. Eyestripe pale buff. Underside pale buff with heavy brown streaking on chest, sides, and flanks.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike, male slightly larger.

Immature

Similar to adult.

Similar Species

• Sprague's Pipit has pale legs, pale face, buffy upperparts with strong streaks, and unstreaked flanks.
• Rare Red-throated Pipit much more heavily striped above and below, and usually has reddish throat.
• Vesper Sparrow has thick bill, dark cheek patch, and heavier chest streaking.

Sound

Song a series of high, jangling notes. Call a quick, dry "pip-it."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds across Alaska and northern Canada, southward in mountains to southern Arizona and New Hampshire.

Winter Range

Winters from southern United States to Central America.

Habitat

Breeds in arctic and alpine tundra. In migration and winter uses coastal beaches and marshes, stubble fields, recently plowed fields, mudflats, and river courses.

Food

Insects and seeds.

Behavior

Foraging

Walks or runs while pecking at ground or gleaning from low vegetation, frequently changing direction; occasional short flights from ground or boulders to pursue prey. Feeds in large flocks in fall and winter.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open cup of coarse, dried grasses and sedges, with lining of finer grasses and sometimes hair. Placed on ground, with overhanging vegetation.

Egg Description

Whitish with dense dark brown spotting.

Clutch Size

Usually 5-6 eggs. Range: 3-7.

Condition at Hatching

Downy and helpless.

Conservation Status

May be declining.

Other Names

Pipit d?Amérique (French)
Bisbita de Agua Americana; Alondra acuática (Spanish)
Water Pipit (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Verbeek, N. A. M. and P. Hendricks. 1994. American Pipit (Anthus rubescens). In The Birds of North America, No. 95 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists? Union.