Page 280 - Complete Birds of Britain and Europe (DK - RSPB)

PIPITS AND WAGTAILS
Family Motacillidae
PIPITS AND WAGTAILS

HILE SIMILAR TO LARKS, these are
Wsmaller, slimmer birds with longer tails
and a more steeply undulating flight.They lack
the larks’ prolonged song-flights but the pipits
have more ritualized song-flight patterns and
less varied songs.
PIPITS
Streaky brown is the typical description of a GREY OR YELLOW?
pipit: species can be hard to tell apart. Calls help, Although called the Grey Wagtail, this bird confuses many people with
as does the time of year, habitat, and location. its yellow coloration.
Similar species pairs may have different lifestyles,
such as Meadow Pipits (moorland in summer, which breeds beside fast-flowing streams, is
lowlands in winter) and Tree Pipits (woodland a regular bird on urban rooftops in winter.
edge in summer,Africa in winter).There is little Male and female plumages are often different
plumage variation between sexes and seasons. and winter plumages are duller than summer
ones; juveniles are also recognizably different.
WAGTAILS Some species are resident in Europe, others
More boldly patterned or more colourful than migrate to Africa for the winter.
pipits,the wagtails are often associated with water
or wet meadowland. Pied and White Wagtails,
however, are more likely than almost any other
bird to be seen on tarmac or concrete in
urban areas and even the Grey Wagtail,

LONG CLAW
Meadow and Tree Pipits are closely similar,
but the Meadow Pipit has a long hind claw,
at least as long as the toe, as seen here: on
a Tree Pipit it is shorter.

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