Red-throated Pipit
Anthus cervinus
Small pipit; adults distinctive with rusty-red face and throat (paler in winter), contrasting with streaked white belly. The back is heavily streaked black, white, and brown, and the rump is also streaked. Breeds in mountains and on the tundra in open grasslands and boggy areas with willows. Winters in a range of damp, open habitats, such as wet fields, marshlands, pastures, and riverbanks. Camouflaged and difficult to spot on the ground. When flushed may fly a long way uttering a far-carrying "pssiiih" call.
Identification
This is a small pipit, with an adult easily identified in the breeding season by its brick-red face and throat. In other plumages, this is an undistinguished-looking species, heavily streaked brown above, with whitish mantle stripes, and with black markings on a white background below. It is very similar in appearance to the meadow pipit, and in the autumn, it much resembles the tree pipit, but has an altogether more striped appearance because of the larger numbers of streaks on the cap, back, flank, rump, and chest. The flight of the red-throated pipit is strong and direct, and it gives a characteristic psii call as it flies.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Anthus cervinus
- Authority
- (Pallas, 1811)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Motacillidae
- Genus
- Anthus
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL, NA : n Europe to nw Alaska
- Non-breeding range
- AF, OR : wc to ec Africa, se Asia to e China, Philippines
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
The red-throated pipit is native to the boreal regions of Northern Europe and Asia. The breeding habitat is open country including mountains, marshland, and tundra. The nest is built on the ground, often beside a tussock of grass, on rough grassland, or on a hummock in a marsh. It is made of dry grasses and sedges with a soft lining of reindeer hair or down. Four to six eggs are laid and incubated by the female for nearly two weeks. The young are fledged and ready to leave the nest about 12 days later. The red-throated pipit is insectivorous, like its relatives, but also eats seeds.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Baird's Trogon
Trogon bairdii
Unique trogon with dark purplish head and breast, turquoise back, white undertail, and pale blue bill and eyering. No white band between chest and belly. Female mostly gray with red belly, perhaps most similar to Slaty-tailed Trogon but note pale blue eyering, gray bill, and thin white bars on undertail. Limited range. Look for a bird sitting upright and still at middle levels in the forest, slowly turning head searching for prey. Usually single or in pairs. Song is a fairly fast, accelerating series of cluck notes.
Sula Hanging-Parrot
Loriculus sclateri
A tiny stub-tailed green parrot with a golden-bronze back, a narrow red throat, a bright red rump, and a small red shoulder patch. Juveniles are duller and more poorly marked. Singles or small groups occur within treetops of forest and nearby secondary growth areas in the lowlands. No other tiny green, short-tailed parrot occurs within its limited range in the Sula and Banggai islands. Very high-pitched calls include “zeet-weet-wit,” rising in pitch at the end. Sometimes birds only utter the first two notes or single “zeet” notes.
Cone-billed Tanager
Conothraupis mesoleuca
Recently rediscovered tanager. Males are black and white with a whitish-gray bill and small white wing patch. Females are uniformly olive-brown with a darker bill. Found in seasonally flooded forests along rivers and in gallery forest, but always near water. Forages at lower levels but also perches in the tops of trees. Feeds on seeds but also has been reported flycatching. The song begins with a series of low notes and finishes with a trill: “tche, tche, tche, tche, tche, tcherrrrrrrrrrrr, tcherrrrrrrrr, tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.”
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