American pipit
Anthus rubescens
Identification Tips:
- Slender bill
- White eye ring and supercilium
- White throat with dark malar streak
- Brownish-olive upperparts with fine black streaks on back
- Wings blackish with broad buffy edges
- Buffy underparts with dark streaking across breast and onto flanks
- Black tail with white outer tail feathers
- Dark legs
- In Spring and Summer, less heavily streaked below and upperparts grayer
- Sexes similar
- Wags its tail
- Often found in flocks on the ground in sparsely vegetated areas (plowed
fields, shores, tundra)
Similar species:
The American Pipit is similar to the Sprague's Pipit but the Sprague's
Pipit has much less streaking on the underparts, more streaking on the back,
a paler face, and pink legs. The rare Red-throated Pipit (breeds in Alaska
and rare migrant in California) has a different call and pink legs. Sparrows
and longspurs can be found in similar habitats but have thick, conical bills.