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Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Anthus pratensis

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The Meadow Pipit is a small, streaky-brown songbird of open country, widespread from Greenland and Iceland across Europe to western Siberia. Most northern and eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe, North Africa and south-west Asia, while many in western Europe remain year-round. It is a familiar bird of moors, meadows and coastal grasslands, noted for its parachuting song flight and thin “ist-ist” call.

Did you know?

  • It is one of the cuckoo's most frequently used hosts.
  • The word “pipit” imitates its call.

Voice

Song
Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

A small pipit, grey-brown above and pale below with heavy streaking. The head lacks strong markings; there is a narrow white eye-ring and a short, faint supercilium. The bill is fairly long and thin, the legs pale brown and the hind claw very long and rather straight. Outer tail feathers white; the call is a hurried “ist-ist-ist”. Told from other pipits by its plain face and long hind claw.

Family

Motacillidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, white, black, grey

About the habitat

Open country: meadows, pastures, moorland, heaths, bogs, coastal grasslands, outer islets and open uplands; in winter also saltmarshes and fields.

Diet

Mainly small insects and other invertebrates, typically tiny items; also seeds of grasses, sedges and heather, especially in autumn and winter, and sometimes berries.

Behaviour

Walks rather than hops, often bobbing its tail, and has a slightly jerky, bouncing flight. Sings from fence posts or bushes and in a display flight, rising steeply and parachuting down. Nests well hidden on the ground in a grass tussock and often raises two broods. Forms flocks on migration. It is one of the Common Cuckoo's most frequent hosts and important prey for Merlins and Hen Harriers.

Sources

Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiesenpieper Meadow pipit.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC776835, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/776835

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC919260, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/919260

Sound: Hannu Varkki, XC501787, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/501787

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/Meadow_pipit

See also