Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta)

Other Names (World)
Water Pipit, Mountain Pipit(!)

Family
Motacillidae (Pipits And Wagtails)

Size
15.50 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Habitat
Temperate grassland. From 615 - 3,200 m.

Range (Guide)

Afghanistan (P), Albania (B), Algeria, Andorra (B), Armenia (B), Austria (B) (NB), Azerbaijan (B) (NB), Bahrain (NB) (P), Belgium (NB), Bosnia and Herzegovina (B), Bulgaria (B) (NB), China (mainland), Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska) (B) (NB), Cyprus (NB), Czech Republic (B) (NB), Denmark (B) (NB), Egypt, Estonia (B), Faroe Islands (B) (NB), Finland (B) (P), France (B) (NB) (P), Georgia (B), Germany (B) (NB) (P), Greece (B) (NB) (P), Hungary (NB), India, Iran [Islamic Republic of] (B), Iraq (NB), Ireland (B), Israel, Italy (B) (NB) (P), Jordan (NB), Kazakhstan (B), Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan (B), Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein (B) (NB), Luxembourg (NB), Macedonia [The Former Yugoslav Republic of] (B) (NB), Malta (NB), Mongolia (B), Montenegro (B), Morocco, Nepal (NB) (P), Netherlands Antilles (NB), Norway (B), Oman, Pakistan, Poland (B) (NB), Portugal (B) (NB), Qatar, Romania (B) (NB), Russia (Asian) (B), Russia (Central Asian) (B), Russia (European) (B), Saudi Arabia, Serbia (B), Slovakia (Slovak Republic) (B) (NB), Slovenia (B) (NB), South Korea, Spain (B) (NB), Sweden (B) (NB), Switzerland (B) (NB), Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan (China), Tajikistan (B), Tunisia, Turkey (B) (NB), Ukraine (B), United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (NB), Uzbekistan (B).

Vagrant to Gibraltar, Latvia.

Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.

Population
Estimated population is 10,000,000 - 100,000,000 (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (332)...)

Water Pipit (Anthus) [XC858188]
by Johannes Dag Mayer from North Warren RSPB Reserve, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom (flight call)

Water Pipit (Anthus) [XC759496]
by Stanislas Wroza from Schaarbeek, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Belgium (flight call)

Subspecies
Possibly forms a clade with Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis), Rosy Pipit (Anthus roseatus), Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus), Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) and Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus rubescens). May form a superspecies, and until recently treated as conspecific, with Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) and Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus rubescens). Birds from north-western Caucasus sometimes separated as subspecies caucasicus, but considered inseparable from coutellii.

The following 3 subspecies are recognised:

spinoletta (Linnaeus, 1758) - Breeds in mountains of central and southern Europe. Winters western and southern Europe and north-western Africa.
coutellii Audouin, 1826 - Breeds north, southern and eastern Turkey, Caucasus and mountains of northern Iran and Turkmenistan (Kopet Dagh). Winters in neighbouring lowlands and south to north-eastern Africa and Arabia.
blakistoni Swinhoe, 1863 - Breeds in mountains of southern Russia (east to Transbaikalia), Mongolia, eastern Kazakhstan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and north-western and central China (western Xinjiang, Qinghai); migrates to Pakistan, north-western India and southern China.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta) - 10 files

More Information

BirdLife International

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BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

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