Buff-bellied Pipit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| iBuff-bellied Pipit Conservation status: Least concern |
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 American Pipit
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| Anthus rubescens (Tunstall, 1771) |
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The Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus rubescens) is a small passerine bird. It has two distinctive subspecies: The American Pipit, A. r. rubescens, breeds in northern North America, and further south in mountainous areas. The Japanese Pipit, A. r. japonicus, breeds not only in Japan but in most of north-central and northeast Asia. There are some sequence differences between these, and they might be considered distinct species pending further research (Zink et al., 1997).
This species is closely related to Rock Pipit and Water Pipit, all three forms having previously been considered conspecific (Sangster et al., 2002). They can be told apart by their vocalizations (Leonovich et al, 1997) and some visual cues (Alström & Mild, 1996), but Rock and Buff-bellied Pipit do not co-occur except as vagrant individuals, and the Buff-belllied and Water Pipits' ranges overlap only in a small area in Central Asia (Nazarenko, 1978).
Both subspecies of Buff-bellied Pipit are migratory. The American Pipit winters on the Pacific coast of North America, and on the Atlantic coast from the southern USA to Central America. Asian birds winter mainly from Pakistan east to Japan and southeast Asia. The American and Asian subspecies are rare vagrants to western and eastern Europe respectively.
The breeding habitat is tundra, but outside the breeding season these birds are found in open lightly vegetated areas similar to those favoured by Water Pipit.
Like most other pipits, this is an undistinguished looking species on the ground. American Pipit has lightly streaked gray-brown upperparts and is diffusely streaked below on the buff breast and flanks. The belly is whitish. The Asian form is darker above, and has bolder black streaking on its whiter underparts.
This species is insectivorous. Its call is a squeaky sip.
[edit] References
- Alström, Per & Mild, Krister (1996): The identification of Rock, Water and Buff-bellied Pipits. Alula 2(4): 161–175.
- BirdLife International (2004). Anthus rubescens. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Leonovich, V. V.; Deminia, G. V. & Veprintseva, O. D. (1997): [On the taxonomy and phylogeny of pipits (Genus Anthus, Motacillidae, Aves) in Eurasia]. Biulleten Moskovskogo obshchestva ispytatelei prirody. Otdel biologicheskii. 102(2): 14–22. [Article in Russian]
- Nazarenko, A. A. (1978): [On species validity of Anthus rubescens Tunstall (Aves: Motacillidae).] Zoologicheskiy Zhurnal 57: 1743–1744. [Article in Russian]
- Zink, R. M., Rohwer, S., Andreev, A. V. & Dittmann, D. L. (1995): Trans-Beringia comparisons of mitochondrial DNA differentiation in birds. Condor 97(3): 639–649. PDF fulltext
