Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)

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The Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the far north of Europe and Asia, with a foothold in northern Alaska. It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to Africa, south and east Asia and west coast USA. It is a vagrant to western Europe.

This is a small pipit, with adults easily identified in the breeding season by their 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. Its flight is strong and direct, and it gives a characteristic “psii” call.

The breeding habitat is open country including mountains, marshland and tundra. The nest is on the ground, on a hummock in a marsh, with 4-6 eggs being laid. The Red-throated Pipit is insectivorous, like its relatives, but also eats seeds.

The red-throated pipit (Anthus cervinus) is a small passerine bird,which breeds in the far north of Europe and the Palearctic, with a foothold in northern Alaska. It is a long-distance migrant, moving in winter to Africa, South and East Asia and the West Coast United States. It is a vagrant to Western Europe.

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. The flight of the red-throated pipit is strong and direct, and it gives a characteristic psii call as it flies.

photo: Mihai BACIU

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