[ody]

Photo taken today in my local patch ,by Thessaloniki,North Greece.

[FergusJBend]

Originally Posted by ody

Photo taken today in my local patch ,by Thessaloniki,North Greece.

Meadow Pipit, I think.

Fergus

[knotsbirder]

Yep

[ody]

Thank you very much!I am never sure with the pipits!

[Frenchy]

Did it call at all? If so, my guess is that it would have gone "tzeeeee".....

Heavy black spotting below, yellow bill and dark mantle stripes all make it look like a Red-throated Pipit to me. Can't see the rump unfortunately.

[lou salomon]

would be quite early for a RTP, do they arrive in greece by mid march?

[ody]

I observed RTP in the past .This bird doesn't seem to be one.They come later in April to Greece.

Here another pic from the same bird.

[nickderry]

hmm, that does look like a red-throated, and is that rump streaking I can see on the second photo?

[ody]

Who else is for Meadow Pipit?

[Simon Wates]

2nd pic does look like a advanced 1st winter RTP. Maybe the first photo looks like another bird because the side its showing has less juv coverts.

Here in Portugal the few we get tend to be in late April early May but this year we have had 2 wintering birds (together) in the Algarve.

[Jane Turner]

Originally Posted by Frenchy

Did it call at all? If so, my guess is that it would have gone "tzeeeee".....

Heavy black spotting below, yellow bill and dark mantle stripes all make it look like a Red-throated Pipit to me. Can't see the rump unfortunately.

I had a better check the rump thought on that first pic, based on the underparts and the braces...you can see most of a couple of upper tcs and there is no hint of a dark centre - something you can usually see on a similar view. The face looks a bit "vacuous" too and the malar splodge a little weak.

Could be easily swayed by a call mind!

[ody]

Here one front side.

[Jane Turner]

http://www.surfbirds.com/community-b...anza/25755.jpg

This shows how the longest upper tc usually looks - as wellas the malar

http://www.surfbirds.com/community-b...anza/25755.jpg

[ody]

What about water pipit?

[Jane Turner]

No -its definitely Meadow/Red-throated and I am on the Meadow side of the fence

[Frenchy]

No, looking again i think you should be able to see streaks on the uppertail coverts if they were there, plus the malar and streaking are not quite right are they. I'll agree with Meadow Pipit and retire ungracefully!

[Jane Turner]

I was looking for a bird from about 5 years ago where I confidently went the other way...and was wrong... but failed

[ody]

If it helps one more pic from the same bird.

[Jane Turner]

That would have been the most useful one to start with - no doubt that its a Meadow Pipit.

[dave123]

meadow pipit for me

[TringBirder]

Also scapulars are wrong and obvious supercilium just isn't present. So Meadow Pipit for me too.

[Simon Wates]

The 2nd photo got me thinking...but the other photos do look like Meadow Pipit and as Jane says the last one clinches it - it doesn't invite RTP at all.