Sweet bird that shunn’st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy!
A John Milton quotation
Red-throated Pipit: Have you seen this bird?
Red-throated Pipit
The Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the far north of Europe and Asia, with a foothold in northern Alaska.
It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to Africa, south and east Asia and west coast USA. It is a vagrant to western Europe.
Identification Tips:
• Length: 5 inches
• Slender bill
• White eye ring and supercilium
• White throat with dark malar streak
• Dark brown upperparts with black and whitish streaks on back
• Wings blackish with whitish wing bars
• Buffy underparts with dark streaking across breast and onto flanks
• Black tail with white outer tail feathers
• Pink legs
• In Spring and Summer, has distinctive pinkish throat and supercilium
• Sexes similar
• Wags its tail
• Breeds in Alaska and very rare migrant in California
Similar species:
Sprague’s Pipit has a less heavily streaked breast while American Pipit has dark legs. Sparrows and longspurs can be found in similar habitats but have thick, conical bills.
This is a small pipit, with adults easily identified in the breeding season by their brick red face and throat. In other plumages this is an undistinguished looking species.
The breeding habitat is open country including mountains, marshland and tundra. The nest is on the ground, on a hummock in a marsh, with 4-6 eggs being laid.
The Red-throated Pipit is insectivorous, like its relatives, but also eats seeds.
Sweet bird that shunn’st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy!
A John Milton quotation
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Sweet bird that shunn’st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy!
