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Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) German name(s): "Wiesenpieper" Size: 14-15.5 cm; wing span 22-25 cm Weight: 15-23 g

Europe: Family Group 24 Family Group 24 Table White Wagtail Western Yellow Wagtail Grey Wagtail Tawny Pipit Berthelot's Pipit Red-throated Pipit Tree Pipit Meadow Pipit Water Pipit Eurasian Rock Pipit Greater Short-toed Lark Calandra Lark Woodlark Eurasian Skylark Bearded Reedling House Sparrow Tree Sparrow Spanish Sparrow Rock Sparrow Trumpeter Finch European Serin Atlantic Canary Red-fronted Serin Eurasian Siskin Common Redpoll Arctic Redpoll Common Linnet Brambling Common Chaffinch European Goldfinch Eurasian Bullfinch Hawfinch Common Crossbill Common Rosefinch Yellowhammer Cirl Bunting Common Reed Bunting Ortolan Bunting Black-headed Bunting Corn Bunting Rock Bunting House Bunting Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names European birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Meadow Pipits are a small member of the genus Anthus. Their plumage is highly cryptic. When the plumage is fresh, the front is off-white to olive-buff, with brown streaks, mostly on the chest, but also on the sides. The streaks on the sides are more sparsely spaced than those on the front. As the plumage wears, the olive-buff tinge disappears and the front turns white. The belly, vent and undertail coverts are light-grey. The head, which is brownish with dark streaking when fresh, also turns more grey as the plumage is worn down, with eyebrows and eye-rings becoming more prominent in light-grey. The crown and the back, including the tail, are mostly greyish-brown, with darker streaking in particular on the mantle and with dark brownish-grey flight feathers with lighter-brown to light-grey edge lining. The rufous rump is not streaked. The eyes have dark-brown irises. The slender dark-grey bill has a lower mandible with an horn-coloured base. The legs and feet are yellow-brown.

Taxonomy, classification See Meadow Pipit at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Meadow Pipit is available HERE . Meadow Pipits breed in an area spanning from the southern coastline of Greenland and all of Iceland in the West to central Asia in the East, at geographic latitudes from ca. 50 to 75 degrees. They are strongly migratory, spending the winters in temperate central to southern Europe, northern Africa, Asia Minor, parts of the Middle East and of the Arabian coastline, both along the northern Red Sea and along the North coast of Arabia, as far to the East as Musandam peninsula. They are permanent residents only in parts of western and central Europe, but there is an isolated permanent population in the Caucasus mountain range. In Europe Meadow Pipits are permanent residents only on the British Isles, in the Benelux countries, northern to central France and western to southern Germany. During the summer months they extend their breeding range eastwards, crossing the river Rhine. They stay to the North of a line spanning from southern Germany to the North coast of the Black Sea, but they avoid the Balkans, the Danube catchment and the Tatras. In the North their breeding range includes the northern Atlantic islands off Scotland and Norway, all of Scandinavia and all of north-western European Russia. In the Alps, the Balkans, the Tatras and the Hungarian Pusta they are only found during migration, while in the entire rest of southern and south-eastern Europe they are winter visitors. Meadow Pipits have a preference for open country, such as meadows, grassland, bogs, heath and moors. They require the presence of some shrubs to nest under and for males to perch commanding their territories.

Sightings Click here for sighting information J. Pires reports finding Meadow Pipits regularly during the winter months in various locations in central Portugal. D. Wilczynska reports spotting a Meadow Pipit near Bergen, Norway, in May 2016.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Fresh plumage

Near-frontal view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage - note the creamy to buff base colour (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[November 2017]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage - this photo shows clearly the yellow base of the lower mandible and the very long hind claws, both of which distinguish this species from the Tree Pipit (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, November 2020]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2016]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, October 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[November 2017]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2016]

Dorsal view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas do Brito, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2019]

Near-frontal view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sorraia River, near Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2019]

Near-lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Ilha da Murraceira, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, February 2019]

Near-lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Ilha da Murraceira, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, February 2019]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, November 2020]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sorraia River, near Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2019]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sorraia River, Coruche, Santarem, Portugal, January 2018]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sorraia River, Coruche, Santarem, Portugal, February 2018]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2017]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[June 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sorraia River, near Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2019]

Near-dorsal view of a Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, November 2017]

Dorsal view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[November 2017]

Meadow Pipit in intermediate plumage taking off (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Montijo, Tejo estuary, Portugal, March 2019]

Worn plumage

Frontal view of a Meadow Pipit in worn plumage; note the grey base colour (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Near Bergen, Norway, May 2016]

Near-frontal view of a Meadow Pipit (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Near Bergen, Norway, May 2016]

Near-frontal view of a Meadow Pipit (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2018]

Near-lateral view of a Meadow Pipit (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Near Bergen, Norway, May 2016]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in worn plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2020]

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in worn plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Oriola, Portel, Evora, Portugal, January 2020]

Near-dorsal view of a Meadow Pipit; note the long and curved hind claws (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, February 2018]

Food, Diet

Lateral view of a Meadow Pipit in fresh plumage with its prey, a large beetle (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sorraia River, Coruche, Santarem, Portugal, January 2018]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Tue, 18 April 2023, 5:56 +00:00