Monday 21 January 2013

Identifying a Pipit



Fellow-birders will relate. For non-birders, here's a compilation of some pictures of Pipits I've taken. 
Pipits are a genus of slender-bodied, generally long-tailed, ground-feeding, drab-looking insectivorous birds that are an amateur birdwatcher's nightmare! Classified in the genus Anthus, they ALL LOOK THE SAME! Leaving the problems pipits cause to birdwatchers aside, the perform excellent pest control services in grasslands and are extremely efficient insect killers. Pipits in turn are food for raptors such as harriers and falcons, and are hence a very important grassland/ open country species.

2 comments:

  1. thank you thank you thank you.... :) I am at peace now, freed from the guilt of getting the wrong ids for these guys and a lot of their cousins..:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha ha! Thanks Tharangini. About the IDs, we're very much in the same boat.

    ReplyDelete