Olive-backed Pipit
Anthus hodgsoni
Small pipit with a greenish-brown back and heavily streaked breast and belly that is often seen in loose flocks or in pairs. Note the distinctive facial pattern: broad pale lines surrounding the eye and a dark ear patch. Prefers more forested areas than other pipits, though will also forage in fields and scrubby edges. Can be tolerant of human activity and is not uncommon in rural areas and city parks in parts of their range. Calls are high-pitched “tseep’s,” often with a buzzy quality. Song is a beautiful series of warbling trills, whistles, and rattles.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Anthus hodgsoni
- Authority
- Blackwelder, 1907
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Motacillidae
- Genus
- Anthus
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL : w Russia to Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Kuril Is. (e Russia), n Korean Pen. and n, c Japan; disjunctly in Himalayas to ec China
- Non-breeding range
- OR : India through e China, Honshu to Ryukyu Is. (c, s Japan), Philippines
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Ground Parrot
Pezoporus wallicus
Shy, predominantly ground-dwelling, long-tailed parrot of dense coastal heath. Primarily green, with yellow-green underparts and extensive black barring throughout. Extremely shy; usually only seen flying away when disturbed. Adult has tiny red band above bill and pale eye. Call is the most reliable way to locate this species, which tends to call mostly at dawn and dusk: a high whistle that ascends in pitch.
Gray-crowned Flatbill
Tolmomyias poliocephalus
Small, stocky flycatcher with broad, flat bill. Occupies canopy and midstory of forest edges, gardens, and tall second growth in humid lowlands. Has gray crown, pale yellow underparts, and yellow edgings to wing feathers (but not wingbars). Very similar to a few other species of flycatchers, particularly Yellow-margined and Yellow-olive Flycatchers; best distinguishing features include its pale eye, lack of a yellow patch at the base of the primaries, and voice. Call is a loud, quickly rising whistle: “tuee?”, higher and cleaner than similar calls from species like Brownish Twistwing and Blue-backed Manakin, but not as high as the “twee-twee” of Purple-throated Euphonia.
Splendid Astrapia
Astrapia splendidissima
A long-tailed bird of montane forest. Black back and white base to the upper tail, more extensive in the male. Male has iridescent blue-green underparts, head and bib with rufous breast band and thin, rufous stripe down the side of the neck. Female has a black head and a barred belly. Feeds on fruit and searches for insects on mossy branches and epiphytes. Range of Ribbon-tailed Astrapia may just meet, but Splendid Astrapia female has white in the base of the upper tail. Call, a clicking sound.
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