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Red-throated Pipit

Anthus cervinusOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wagtails and Pipits (Motacillidae)

Red-throated Pipit Portrait
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General

Red-throated Pipit: Medium-sized pipit with brown streaked upperparts and heavily streaked white underparts. Face, throat, and upper breast are orange-brown. Crown is pale brown. Wings are brown with two white bars. Tail is white-edged. Female, winter adult, and juvenile are duller.

Range and Habitat

Red-throated Pipit: Regular migrant on Bering Sea islands; rare migrant along California coast; casual inland. Prefers wet, grassy habitat around lakes, dams, and ponds; often encountered in disturbed areas such as irrigated lands and other wet cultivations.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tseeaz"

Interesting Facts

  • The Red-throated Pipit is very territorial when breeding and displays with horizontal or parachuting song flight.
  • While displaying his courtship dance the male repeatedly flies from 50 to 200 feet high and then soars downward singing his courtship song with his legs straight out and his his tail upright.
  • There are 40 species of pipits worldwide, they are slender and often drab with medium to long tails.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Red-throated Pipit
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Anthus cervinus
Length6 Inches
Wingspan10 Inches

Red-throated Pipit

Red-throated Pipit: Medium pipit, brown streaked upperparts, heavily streaked white underparts. Face, chin, throat, upper breast are orange-brown. Crown is pale brown. Brown wings have two white bars. Tail is white-edged. Bill is black. Legs and feet are pink. Eats mostly insects, also eat seeds.

● Song: "tseeaz"

● Foraging & Feeding: Red-throated Pipit: Eats insects and seeds. Forages in short grass by creeping and walking in a crouched position, frequently darting after insects; wags tail during pauses.

● Breeding & nesting: Red-throated Pipit: Four to seven blue or olive gray eggs marked with brown and black are laid in a ground scrape lined with fine grass and hair. Nest scrape is made by the male; female builds the rest. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Red-throated Pipit: Sprague’s and Tree pipits have fainter streaks on underparts. American Pipit has dark legs.

Flight Pattern

Alternates several rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides.
Red-throated Pipit Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Red-throated Pipit: Regular migrant on Bering Sea islands; rare migrant along California coast; casual inland. Prefers wet, grassy habitat around lakes, dams, and ponds; often encountered in disturbed areas such as irrigated lands and other wet cultivations.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
PopulationCasual to accidential on northwest coast
MigrationMigratory
Weight0.7 Ounces