Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE SONG BIRDS

THE WAGTAILS AND PIPITS

Pipits

The Pipits are distinguished at once from the Wagtails by their relatively much shorter tails and streaked upper plumage, the prevailing colors being brownish or tawny. The sexes are alike in coloration, but the seasonal differences, so pronounced in the Wagtails, are very slight in the Pipits, though during the breeding season the plumage often becomes worn and faded. The typical Pipits (Anthus), of which there are a large number, are practically cosmopolitan, being absent only from the Papuan Islands and Polynesia, and are the only members of the family normally occurring in the New World. Of the three native species, the best-known is the American Pipit, or Titlark (A. pensil-vanicus), which is found extensively dispersed over the whole of North America, breeding in the higher Rocky Mountains and in sub-Arctic districts, and spending the winter in the Gulf States, Mexico, and Central America. To the bird-lover in almost every portion of the United States they are familiar birds, as they pass through in the late fall and on the return journey in early spring. They frequent open places especially near the seacoasts, but pastures, old fields, recently burned or plowed fields in the interior are almost sure to harbor them. At this season they are thoroughly gregarious, going in small or large flocks and spending their entire time on the ground or on the wing. When feeding they are often somewhat scattered, but on a common signal they all rise together with a soft, querulous cry — dee-dee, dee-dee — and either fly away to a great distance or as often settle within a few yards of where they rose. Their nests, of which there are often several in the immediate neighborhood, are placed on the ground under tufts of grass in meadows or marshes, and are made of grass and moss; the four to six eggs are grayish in color, heavily spotted and blotched with brown.

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