DSC9041 Rock Pipit... - a photo on Flickriver

            Rock Pipit - Anthus petrosus

The Eurasian rock pipit is closely related to the water pipit and the meadow pipit, and is rather similar in appearance. Compared to the meadow pipit, the Eurasian rock pipit is darker, larger and longer-winged than its relative, and has dark, rather than pinkish-red, legs. The water pipit in winter plumage is also confusable with the Eurasian rock pipit, but has a strong supercilium and greyer upperparts; it is also typically much warier. The Eurasian rock pipit's dusky, rather than white, outer tail feathers are also a distinction from all its relatives. The habitats used by Eurasian rock and water pipits are completely separate in the breeding season, and there is little overlap even when birds are not nesting.

The Eurasian rock pipit is almost entirely coastal, frequenting rocky areas typically below 100 metres (330 ft), although on St Kilda it breeds at up to 400 metres (1,300 ft).[15] The Eurasian rock pipit is not troubled by wind or rain, although it avoids very exposed situations. It may occur further inland in winter or on migration.[3]

The breeding range is temperate and Arctic Europe on western and Baltic Sea coasts, with a very small number sometimes nesting in Iceland. The nominate race is largely resident, with only limited movement. A. p. kleinschmidti, which nests on the Faroe Islands and the Scottish islands, may move to sandy beaches or inland to rivers and lakes in winter. A. p. littoralis is largely migratory, wintering on coasts from southern Scandinavia to southwest Europe, with a few reaching Morocco. Wanderers have reached Spitsbergen and the Canary Islands, but records in Europe away from the coast are rare.

The Eurasian rock pipit is a much more approachable bird than the water pipit. If startled, it flies a fairly short distance, close to the ground, before it alights, whereas its relative is warier and flies some distance before landing again. Eurasian rock pipits are usually solitary, only occasionally forming small flocks.

Estimates of the breeding population of the Eurasian rock pipit vary, but may be as high as 408,000 pairs, of which around 300,000 pairs are in Norway. Despite slight declines in the British population and some range expansion in Finland, the population is considered overall to be large and stable, and for this reason it is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN.

Taken on: September 1, 2020

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