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Eurasian Rock Pipit

Eurasian Rock Pipit

Anthus petrosus

Identify the Eurasian Rock Pipit by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Eurasian Rock Pipit is a sturdy, dark, streaky pipit of rocky sea coasts in western and northern Europe. Birds on Atlantic shores are mostly resident, while the northern subspecies breeding around the Baltic and in northern Europe migrates west and south to winter on milder coasts. It is a strictly coastal breeder, and its large, stable population is of Least Concern.

Did you know?

  • Males sometimes help a neighbour chase an intruder out of its territory.
  • Its scientific name, petrosus, is Latin for “rocky”.

Voice

Flight call

About the species

Identification

A dusky, olive-brown to grey pipit, darker above and heavily streaked below, with a fairly long dark bill. The outer tail feathers are pale grey, not bright white as on Meadow Pipit. The call is a sharp “psriit”, and the male's song, often in song flight, is coarser than Meadow Pipit's.

Family

Motacillidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, grey, white

About the habitat

Rocky shores, skerries and islets of the outer archipelago, boulder beaches and cliff bases; on migration and in winter also wrack-strewn beaches and sometimes a little inland.

Diet

Mainly insects, small crustaceans, worms and molluscs picked from wet rocks, seaweed and shallow water; in winter often small snails; also some seeds.

Behaviour

Forages by walking and probing among seaweed and rock crevices along the shore, often perching on boulders between bouts of feeding. Usually seen singly or in pairs and strongly territorial. The male delivers a Meadow Pipit-like song in display flight. The nest is tucked into a rock crevice or under coastal vegetation; 4–6 eggs hatch in about two weeks.

Sources

Photo: MPF, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2015-04-22 Anthus petrosus, Portsoy.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707268, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707268

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_rock_pipit

See also