Water Pipit Anthus spinoletta breeds Pyrenees to Tianshan in Xinjiang and mountains of Qinghai and Gansu. In China winters south of Yangtze. Race in China is blakistoni. HABITAT Breeds on mountain slopes, usually above timberline; on migration and in winter to sea level, most often around freshwater wetlands. ID & COMPARISON Similar to Rosy Pipit A. roseatus and Siberian Pipit A. japonicus. Non-breeding grey-brown from forehead to mantle, with faint dark streaks on mantle. Wings brownish-black, with two wingbars; longish tail also brownish-black with white tips and sides of outer tail feathers. Supercilium faint, buff. Malar stripe indistinct. Underparts buff with grey-brown streaking on breast and flanks. Breeding greyer above with pink tinge to nearly unstreaked breast. Supercilium more distinct and may have pinkish hue. Non-breeding Siberian Pipit A. japonicus has larger, blacker streaks on breast and whiter wing bars and is browner with less distinct streaking above. Breeding japonicus more orange-tinged below than Water Pipit, whose underparts tend more toward pinkish. Breeding Water Pipit also greyer and more streaked above and has more prominent (whitish) supercilium. Rosy Pipit has dark lores and a broken eye-ring, is much more heavily streaked on mantle (all plumages) and underparts (non-breeding), always has pale legs, and in breeding plumage is brighter pink on throat and breast. Meadow Pipit A. pratensis has darker streaking on warmer brown crown and mantle. BARE PARTS Non-breeding bill black above, yellow below, with black tip; breeding bill all black. Feet brownish-black, occasionally pinkish-brown. VOICE Thin tseep, tseep call; sings from boulders and bushes and during display flights. — Craig Brelsford
THE PIPITS AND WAGTAILS OF CHINA
shanghaibirding.com has research on all 22 species in the family Motacillidae in China. Click any link:
Forest Wagtail Dendronanthus indicus
Western Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava
Eastern Yellow Wagtail M. tschutschensis
Citrine Wagtail M. citreola
Grey Wagtail M. cinerea
White Wagtail M. alba
Japanese Wagtail M. grandis
White-browed Wagtail M. maderaspatensis
Richard’s Pipit Anthus richardi
Paddyfield Pipit A. rufulus
Blyth’s Pipit A. godlewskii
Tawny Pipit A. campestris
Meadow Pipit A. pratensis
Tree Pipit A. trivialis
Olive-backed Pipit A. hodgsoni
Pechora Pipit A. gustavi
Rosy Pipit A. roseatus
Red-throated Pipit A. cervinus
Siberian Pipit A. japonicus
American Pipit A. rubescens
Water Pipit A. spinoletta
Upland Pipit A. sylvanus
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Daniel Bengtsson served as chief ornithological consultant for Craig Brelsford’s Photographic Field Guide to the Birds of China, from which this species description is drawn.
