Plain-backed Pipit (Anthus leucophrys) [XC269909]
by Bram Piot from Wulki Farm, Careysburg, Montserrado, Liberia (flight call)
Plain-backed Pipit (Anthus leucophrys) [XC216408]
by Tim Cockcroft from Paardeplaats, Lydenburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa (song)
Subspecies
Subspecies goodsoni and saphiroi of Buffy Pipit (Anthus vaalensis) included in present species by some authors. Variation partly clinal, with subspecies intergrading from west to east. Subspecies ansorgei also intergrades with zenkeri in Guinea-Bissau. Other described subspecies are prunus (Angola), merged with bohndorffi, turneri (north-western Kenya), synonymized with zenkeri, and enunciator (Swaziland), merged with nominate.
zenkeri Neumann, 1906 - Guinea and southern Mali east to Ghana, thence east to southern Chad, Central African Republic and southern Sudan, and south to Cameroon, northern and eastern DRCongo, Burundi, north-western Tanzania and western Kenya.
gouldii Fraser, 1843 - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast.
omoensis Neumann, 1906 - South-eastern Sudan and north, central and western Ethiopia.
bohndorffi Neumann, 1906 - South-eastern Gabon, central PRCongo, and southern DRCongo east to western Tanzania and south to central Angola, north-western Zambia and northern Malawi (R Songwe).
tephridorsus Clancey, 1967 - Southern Angola and southern Zambia south to northern Namibia, north-western Botswana and north-eastern Zimbabwe.
leucophrys Vieillot, 1818 - South-eastern Botswana east to extreme southern Mozambique, south to eastern and southern South Africa.
saphiroi Neumann, 1906 - South-eastern Ethiopia and north-western Somalia.
goodsoni Meinertzhagen, R, 1920 - Central and south-western Kenya and extreme northern Tanzania.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet