American Pipit

The American Pipit is a slim, streaky, sparrow-like songbird that breeds on arctic and alpine tundra and winters across open lowland habitats. Its brownish-gray, streaked plumage and thin bill give it a nondescript look, but its behavior — constant tail-bobbing while walking briskly across open ground — makes it easy to recognize once learned.

Breeding adults show buffy underparts, faint streaking on the breast, and a grayish-brown back; winter birds tend to be a bit browner and more heavily streaked below. Slender white outer tail feathers flash in flight, and the legs are dark.

Key field marks

• Slender build with a thin, pointed bill
• Streaked, buffy-to-brownish underparts
• Constant up-and-down tail-bobbing while walking
• White outer tail feathers flashing in flight
• Thin, high call note given in flight ("pip-it" or "sip-sip")

Similar species

Sprague's Pipit is paler and more finely streaked above with a plainer face, and rarely walks in the open the way American Pipit does; it also has a very different, high, insect-like flight song. Vesper Sparrow and other open-country sparrows have thicker, conical bills rather than the pipit's thin, straight bill, and do not bob their tails.

Habitat

Breeds on treeless arctic tundra and high alpine meadows above treeline. In migration and winter, found in open, low-vegetation habitats: plowed fields, pastures, mudflats, beaches, and the shorelines of lakes and rivers.

Range

Breeds across the Arctic and in high mountains of western North America (as well as parts of Siberia and east Asia). Winters broadly across the southern and coastal United States, Mexico, and Central America, often in loose flocks on bare or short-cropped ground.

Behavior

American Pipits walk steadily across open ground rather than hopping, constantly pumping their tails up and down. Outside the breeding season they often gather in loose, restless flocks that flush together and wheel around before settling again.

Voice

The flight call is a thin, sharp "pi-pit" or "sip-it," often given repeatedly as flocks move overhead. The breeding song, delivered during a fluttering display flight over tundra, is a rapid, repetitive series of thin notes.

Feeding and nesting

Feeds by walking and picking insects and other invertebrates from the ground or shallow water's edge; seeds become more important in winter. The nest is a cup of grass placed in a sheltered depression on the ground, often tucked against a rock or tuft of vegetation on the open tundra.