African pipit
A slender grassland pipit with a streaked breast and pinkish legs.
The African pipit, also called the grassveld or grassland pipit, is a small songbird in the Motacillidae family. Its head and back are light brown, while its lower back and tail are dark brown, and its chest is white. It was once grouped with other pipits as Richard’s pipit, but is now usually considered its own species.
Quick Facts
- Genus
- Anthus
- Species
- cinnamomeus
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- It occurs in grassland and fields in Southern, Central and East Africa, southeast of a line from Angola through the DRCongo to Sudan.
- There is an isolated population in the highlands of Cameroon sometimes considered a separate species: Cameroon pipit (Anthus camaroonensis).
- BirdLife International has lumped the African pipit with Richard's pipit and therefore given it no separate conservation status.
Description
The African pipit is a slender bird with an erect stance, measuring 15 to 17 cm in length. Its upperparts are buffy-brown with darker streaks, while the underparts are white or pale buff with a streaked breast and plain belly and flanks. The face shows a pale stripe over the eye and a dark malar stripe. Outer tail-feathers are white, legs are long and pinkish, and the slender bill is dark with a yellowish base to the lower mandible. Juveniles have a blotched breast, scalloped upperparts, and streaked flanks. The song consists of a repeated series of twittering notes given during an undulating song-flight or from a low perch. The Cameroon pipit is slightly larger and darker with buff underparts.
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