Unusual pipit, bad photo: Leyte, Philippines (1 Viewer)

I think you are looking for answers that none of us can give, Valéry, because none of us saw the bird in the field.
We cannot assess the call because there is no sound recording.
We cannot evaluate its behaviour because there is no video, and anyway I doubt that behaviour is of much help in this case. Resident birds are certainly capable of flying too.
We can only assess the bird from the two poor pictures you provided, and in these the bird does not look different from Paddyfield Pipit, so the response "It looks like a Paddyfield Pipit" is just an honest one and also the most logical since it is the expected species in that location.
The question of subspecies is an interesting one but I do not know if single individuals can be identified down to subspecies level in the field. I doubt it.

Well, I lived in 2016 in Nepal and 2017 to now mainly in the Philippines, and have seen a big bunch of Paddyfield Pipits. If someone tells me that bird on the photo looks like a regular one, either he has no idea what is a Paddyfield Pipit, either he knows another subspecies (or any variation) of Paddyfield Pipit that looks extremely different; more different than A. r. rufulus from Nepal look compare to A: r. lugubris from here.

I guess you two are in the last category, you seem experienced. To make sure you understand, if I lived in Belgium and see thousands of Motacilla flava flava, and then live in Spain and see M. f. iberia, when I find my first M. f. feldegg migrating in Spain, it will look different to my eyes, right? Call, plumage and somehow the shape.

Now, if someone tells me, this is a Yellow Wagtail from Greece, I can take it; but the answer that it is a regular Yellow Wagtail in Spain, I cannot take it.

This bird is as different than Anthus rufulus lugubris we have in Leyte that a feldegg is from an iberia in all colour, shape and call; in addition, it has a migration behaviour. I understand I might never have the answers, especially I don't have a real suggestion of another possibility, but if one think it looks like a regular Paddyfield, then please tell me which sub-species or sub-population you know, we can be ready for a split soon!

To clarify, my experience with Paddyfield Pipit is from Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.
Note though that something like flank streaking (which you said you have never seen in this species) is not linked to certain populations but is shown in quite a lot of photographs from throughout the range, and is also mentioned in literature.

smiths said:

To clarify, my experience with Paddyfield Pipit is from Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.
Note though that something like flank streaking (which you said you have never seen in this species) is not linked to certain populations but is shown in quite a lot of photographs from throughout the range, and is also mentioned in literature.

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When internet is fast enough, I gonna watch photos of that part of the World and try to see if it might be a vagrant from there.

I'm not sure for the flanks (see I added "as fas as I recall"), but none of my bird photographed on Leyte show that (about 200 photos). Now, as Leyte is extremely under visited by birders (I found several new species for the islands, including some common breeding resident!), it might be also that Leyte birds are different (as a different sub-species, or a strong local variations?) than elsewhere in the Philippines; I didn't see Paddyfield Pipits on other islands I visited in the country (Cebu and Palawan) yet.

Thanks for your input.

Hi all,
Valery asked me to respond.
This species pair come up regularly in the forums and people agonise, themselves over them in indecision.
Thought the jizz and gestalt was very unique and unusual as stated, IMO. I was really surprised more did not jump on board.
Lewis was brave enough and I really thought more would follow.
Thought Smiths otherwise brilliant forensics, were spoilt by his foot! One cannot see the claw and I am surprised he was allowed free roaming over this. The handful of times I have photographed PP. on overhead wires the claw has been long and decurved. In other other words the shortest RP, claw matches the longest PP, claw in a lot of cases. There are really well researched explanations\digitals and paintings on the web now and it is difficult to argue otherwise. My only criticism is that they come over overtly too slick? About five years ago I tried to produce crude schematic drawings showing the most Richard's like Paddyfield and vice versa. Most people can access the criteria from my crude drawings. The post juvenal Paddyfield is certainly the joker in the pack. To try to explain it in words would tie one in linguistic knots. Tibs78 produces accurate assessments from the most unlikely of images so sometimes it is worth trying and opining about a bird from a poor image.
Finally the bit about the dragging tail, not one of my mine, I got it from a previous posting and thought it to be funny.

Bryon, the clearly curved shape of the hindclaws is reconfirmed in the second photo that Valéry posted.
I agree that this can be shown by a few Richard's too (especially far eastern birds), but it is more typical of Paddyfield.

Here you can see the hind claw of a regular A. r. lugubris

smiths said:

Bryon, the clearly curved shape of the hindclaws is reconfirmed in the second photo that Valéry posted.
I agree that this can be shown by a few Richard's too (especially far eastern birds), but it is more typical of Paddyfield.

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I didn't know that detail, thanks for teaching me. However, they don't look that curved, there is an angle between the finger and the claw, but the curve is shallow, no more than this Richard's Pipit I think:
http://cdn1.arkive.org/media/19/19C...resentation.Large/Richards-pipit-portrait.jpg

Also, how do you identify this bird? Do you confirm Richard's? Black-lored, thin bill, slightly streaked flanks... Isn't it very similar to mine?
http://es.treknature.com/gallery/photo226299.htm

I cropped strongly the first photo, very distant, I took before trying to get closer. May be view on back and claw is slightly better despite blurry?

Thanks for your precious help, guys!

Valéry Schollaert said:

Also, how do you identify this bird? Do you confirm Richard's? Black-lored, thin bill, slightly streaked flanks... Isn't it very similar to mine?
http://es.treknature.com/gallery/photo226299.htm

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That bird looks like a Paddyfield Pipit to me, not Richard's.

smiths said:

That bird looks like a Paddyfield Pipit to me, not Richard's.

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I expected you to say that indeed. I'd like to know why this guy living in India and seeing Paddyfield probably daily has identified that individual as Richard's!

Valéry Schollaert said:

I'd like to know why this guy living in India and seeing Paddyfield probably daily has identified that individual as Richard's!

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Me too, because the bird in this photograph shows only features of Paddyfield.