The wood pipit or woodland pipit (''Anthus nyassae'') is a small
passerine bird belonging to the
pipit genus ''Anthus'' in the family
Motacillidae
The wagtails, longclaws, and pipits are a family, Motacillidae, of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Around 70 species occur in five genera. The longclaws are entirely restricted to the Afrotropics, and the wagtails are predominan ...
. It was formerly included in the
long-billed pipit
The long-billed pipit or brown rock pipit (''Anthus similis'') is a passerine bird which has a wide distribution. A number of subspecies have been created for the populations in Africa, through the Arabian peninsula and South Asia. The systematic ...
(''Anthus similis'') but is now frequently treated as a separate species. It is a bird of
miombo woodland in south-central
Africa, unlike the long-billed pipit which inhabits open grassland. It perches in trees when flushed but forages on the ground for
invertebrates.
Description
It is 16-18 centimetres long. The upperparts are warm brown with dark streaks while the underparts are pale with some streaking on the breast. The bird has a dark eyestripe, white
supercilium
The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...
and pale outer tail-feathers.
Juveniles have dark spots above and have more streaking below than the adults. The bird's
song is high-pitched and monotonous.
The long-billed pipit is very similar but has a slightly longer
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
and tail, a smaller pale area in the outer tail-feathers and a slightly lower voice.
Range
The range of the wood pipit extends from south-east
Gabon eastwards to southern and western
Tanzania and southwards as far as north-east
Namibia, northern
Botswana,
Zimbabwe and north-west
Mozambique. At least three
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
are recognized: ''A. n. nyassae'', ''A. n. frondicolus'' and ''A. n. schoutedeni''. Some authors recognize a fourth subspecies, ''A. n. chersophilus''.
References
* Sinclair, Ian & Ryan, Peter (2003) ''Birds of Africa south of the Sahara'', Struik, Cape Town.
* Van Perlo, Ber (1999) ''Collins Illustrated Checklist: Birds of Southern Africa'', HarperCollins, London.
External links
* Wood pipit
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2226805
wood pipit
Birds of Southern Africa
wood pipit
Taxa named by Oscar Neumann