Bird Guide

Olive-backed Pipit vs Red-throated Pipit

Olive-backed Pipit (Anthus hodgsoni)

Olive-backed Pipit

Anthus hodgsoni

Small21 gGrassland

Size: Sparrow+ (ca. 15 cm (5.9 in)) Appearance: Greenish brown streaked with darker brown above. Supercilium, double wingbar and outer rectrices whitish. Whitish to buff below streaked with dark brown on breast and flanks. Sexes alike. Habits: Seen singly or pairs. Runs about on the ground in search of food and flies up into trees when disturbed. Flight jerky and undulating. Call: Song lark-like and uttered on the wing, similar to the tree pipit, but faster and higher pitched. A single tseep or spek, also similar to the tree pipit. Food: Insects, grass and weed seeds.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Sonothèque ADVL · CC0
Photo: (c) Griha Hasanov, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Griha Hasanov · cc-by
Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)

Red-throated Pipit

Anthus cervinus

Small21 gGrassland

This is a small pipit, with an adult easily identified in the breeding season by its brick-red face and throat. In other plumages, this is an undistinguished-looking species, heavily streaked brown above, with whitish mantle stripes, and with black markings on a white background below. It is very similar in appearance to the meadow pipit, and in the autumn, it much resembles the tree pipit, but has an altogether more striped appearance because of the larger numbers of streaks on the cap, back, flank, rump, and chest.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Sonothèque ADVL · CC0
Photo: TRinaud · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Olive-backed Pipit and Red-throated Pipit.