From Opus

Photo by BIJ
Yeyahu Nature Reserve, Beijing, China, May 2009

Anthus richardi

[edit] Identification

17-20 cm

• Upperparts brown with dark streaks
• Underparts pale apart from streaky breast
• Face:

• Strongly marked with pale lores and supercilium
• Dark eyestripe, moustachial stripe and malar stripe.

• Long yellowish-brown legs
• Long tail with white outer-feathers
• Long dark bill with a yellowish base to the lower mandible
• Two wingbars formed by pale tips to the wing-coverts
• Very long hind claw is diagnostic

[edit] Similar Species

Plumage similar to juvenile Tawny Pipit, Blyth's Pipit and Eurasian Skylark

[edit] Distribution

Southern Siberia, Mongolia, parts of central Asia and in northern, central and eastern China.

Rare, but regular, autumnal vagrants from Siberia, mainly to western Europe

[edit] Taxonomy

This species was formerly a part of a much larger species called Anthus novaseelandiae which was split in African Pipit, Mountain Pipit, Paddyfield Pipit, Richard's Pipit and Australasian Pipit.

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Several subspecies:

• A. r. richardi:

• South-western Siberia and north-eastern Kazakhstan to Lake Baikal; winters mainly in south-western Asia

• A. r. dauricus:

• Transbaikalia to Sea of Okhotsk, northern Mongolia; north-eastern China; winters in southern Asia

• A. r. centralasiae:

• Eastern Kazakhstan to western and southern Mongolia and northern China; winters in southern Asia

• A. r. ussuriensis:

• South-eastern Russia to eastern China (probably Korea); winters in south-eastern Asia

• A. r. sinensis:

• South-eastern China (south of the Yangtze River)

[edit] Habitat

Wet grassland, marshy steppes rice fields and cultivated land.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Flight

Strong flight with long dips. Often hovers momentarily before landing in the grass.

[edit] Diet

Its diet includes insects and seeds.

[edit] Breeding

The nest is made of grass or moss and is built on the ground under a grass tussock.

[edit] Vocalisation

Loud, explosive shreep when flushed.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Wikipedia
3. Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6
4. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition

• List of references

[edit] External Links