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Tree Pipit

Tree Pipit

Anthus trivialis

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

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The Tree Pipit is a slender, streaked songbird of open woodland and forest edges, best known for its parachuting song flight. It breeds widely across Europe and the Palearctic to eastern Siberia and migrates to sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia for the winter. It resembles the Meadow Pipit but has a heavier bill, stronger contrast between buff breast and white belly and a greater liking for trees.

Did you know?

  • Despite its name, the Tree Pipit nests on the ground – “tree” refers to its habit of singing from trees.
  • Its Latin name trivialis means “common”.

Voice

Song
Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

Grey-brown with dark streaks above and an unstreaked rump; breast and flanks buff with clear streaks (weaker on the flanks), belly and undertail white. Legs pinkish. The short, curved hind claw separates it from Meadow Pipit, whose claw is long and straighter. It often rises from a tree in song flight and glides down with legs dangling.

Family

Motacillidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, white, black

About the habitat

Sunny, open woodland and forest edges, young plantations, clear-cuts, glades and heath with scattered trees; avoids dense, closed forest.

Diet

Mainly small invertebrates such as beetles, flies, caterpillars and spiders taken on the ground; also some seeds and berries in late summer and autumn.

Behaviour

Forages by walking on the ground but sings from trees; in display it rises from a perch and glides down on stiff wings with legs dangling while singing a rapid, descending song. The call is a hoarse “spihz”. It nests on the ground in a well-hidden cup; the female builds and incubates, and both parents feed the young. Sometimes parasitised by the Common Cuckoo.

Sources

Photo: Imran Shah from Islamabad, Pakistan, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis) (39760400431) (cropped).jpg

Sound: Carlo Fracasso, XC805240, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/805240

Sound: Pascal Christe, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anthus_trivialis_-_Tree_Pipit_XC488388.mp3

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707271, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707271

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

See also