The Eurasian rock pipit is a small passerine bird that breeds in western Europe on rocky coasts. It has streaked greyish-brown upperparts and buff underparts, and is similar in appearance to other European pipits. There are three subspecies, of which only the Fennoscandian form is migratory. Males will sometimes enter an adjacent territory to assist the resident in repelling an intruder.
About Eurasian rock pipit in brief
The Eurasian rock pipit is a small passerine bird that breeds in western Europe on rocky coasts. It has streaked greyish-brown upperparts and buff underparts, and is similar in appearance to other European pipits. There are three subspecies, of which only the Fennoscandian form is migratory, wintering in shoreline habitats further south in Europe. Males will sometimes enter an adjacent territory to assist the resident in repelling an intruder, behaviour only otherwise known from the African fiddler crab. Although insects are occasionally caught in flight, the pipits feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the rocks or from shallow water. Overall its population is large and stable, and it is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The species was first shown to be different from that species by John Walcott in the 1789 edition of his Synopsis of British Birds, in which he called it the sea lark. It had previously been described in 1766 by Thomas Pennant, in the first edition of British Zoology, although he did not distinguish it from the common titlark.
The first formal description naming this species was by English naturalist George Montagu in 1798. It is closely related to the meadow, red-throated and rosy pipits as well as its former subspecies. There is a geographical trend in appearance, with longer-billed, darker birds at the western end of the range, and shorter-bills, paler individuals in the east. The nominate race has smoky-olive upperparts, weakly marked with darkerparts, heavily marked with poorly defined brown or iris-ringed legs, and there is a pale eye-ring on the eye. The suggested subspecies A. meinertzhageni on South Uist, A. hesperianus on the Isle of Arran, and A. ponens in northwestern France cannot be reliably separated from the nominate form. Compared to the nominate, A kleinschmidti has slightly yellower, less olive-coloured underparts and brighter underparts between the streaking and yellower breast. The EurasianRockPipit is 16. 5–17 centimetres long and weighs 1832.5 grams. The sexes are alike, although males are slightly brighter than females, although the average is complete and the overlap is complete.
You want to know more about Eurasian rock pipit?
This page is based on the article Eurasian rock pipit published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
