Species Name: American Pipit (Anthus rubescens)

Length: 6.5 inches

Description: A nondescript buffy bird with variable amount of streaks on darkish back and paler underparts. Long slender bill, slender body, long dusky tail with white edges that show mainly in flight. Back is brownish-gray, and variable with season and race. Faint mottling forms streaks on mantle and shoulders. Wings somewhat darker than back. Underparts rich buff or tan with faint streaking on flanks, sometimes forming a band on breast. Thin eye ring is white or pale buff; eyeline is thin and matches color of underparts. Bill is bi-colored: predominantly black on upper mandible; predominantly yellow on lower mandible. Legs generally dark, but can be tinged with pink. Long rear toe seldom visible

Range: Nests in tundra and in alpine regions of western US mountains as far south as Arizona and New Mexico. Winters in open areas (fields, wet meadows, beaches) along west coast of US and southern US. Migrant elsewhere in US.

Behavior: Invariably seen on the ground in open places. Walk or run on ground as opposed to hopping. Form large flocks in winter habitat; sometimes seen individually around the edges of small ponds. Bob head when walking; often pump tail when resting. "When flushed the flock jumps into the air simultaneously, uttering their distinctive call. Their flight is swift and buoyant, but erratic, and the flock strings out in a long, loose mass of undulating birds. Food consists of insects, mollusks, crustacea, seeds, and berries." - Richard H. Pough, 1946.

Flight call is usually a pair of sharp notes pip-pip that gives the species its common name.

Related or Similar Species: Previously known as Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta). The Asian form japonicus is more boldly marked below, and is sometimes found in western Alaska and along the west coast as far south as San Diego.

The Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus) is more heavily streaked and has a different call (a high seep given in flight). It is a rare bird seen most falls in southern California associated with American Pipit flocks.

The Sprague's Pipit (Anthus spragueii) is similar, with less streaking on the flanks, a whiter belly, and more pronounced mottling on the back. The eye is more prominent in a "plainer" face. The legs are a more obvious pink. Sprague's Pipits normally do not associate with flocks of American Pipits and prefer longer grass in winter where they are especially hard to see.

The Olive-backed Pipit (Anthus hodgsoni) and the Pechora Pipit (Anthus gustavi) are similar species from Asia that are sough-after rarities in the islands off Alaska.

Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) is an unrelated species that shares habitat and much behavior with pipits. Tell them apart by the boldly marked face and throat of larks

Identification: Learn the call and the habitat and most of the work is done. Seek them in open places in fall and winter. Watch for birds walking on the short grass on sand dunes.

Advice on Finding and Photographing: I consider pipits to be vastly overlooked by bird photographers and even many birders. They can be difficult to find and harder to see well. They do not come to backyard feeding stations. They are inconspicuous and blend in with their environment.

Look for them as breeding birds in Rocky Mountain National Park at high elevation tundra habitat.

In winter, can be easy to see at the spoil-fill island near Sea World in San Diego, where they can be photographed from the car.

In other places, look for them in coastal dunes, around ponds, and in wet meadows or open fields.

The hardest aspects of photographing them are getting close and getting low enough in the flat open areas they prefer

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Richard Ditch been looking at birds and taking their photographs since the early 1970's, when he caught the "birding bug" from a friend at work. He was very active as a birder when he lived in New Jersey (1970-1994), maintaining lists of all the birds he saw each year in the state and elsewhere. Rich was a volunteer and field trip leader at the Owl Haven Nature Center (part of the New Jersey Audubon Society) and was a member of the Board of Directors for many years, along with being a frequent contributor to their quarterly magazine and to Records of New Jersey Birds. After moving to Phoenix, AZ in 1994 as a result of a job change, he found the birds to be a lot different and went through a rapid period of learning new species and new forms of species. Richard is also a very active Member of our PhotoMigrations community and is a regular contributor to our forums. Please feel free to email him and be sure to visit his website located at: Birds in Nature - Images of Wild Birds.