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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Water Pipit? Christchurch today (1 Viewer)

alanc

alanc

Just an earthbound misfit
England
I wondered if this might be a Water Pipit seen at Stanpit Marsh today, The outer tail feathers were clearly white and the lower bill was yellow. Also, the legs are a red-browny colour, I would appreciate any thoughts
thanks
alan
 

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Looks to be a good 'clean' candidate.....I note that the hindclaw appears to favour Water over Meadow!
 
Firstly, thanks Ken, Josh and John.
John, I do visit the CHOG website most evenings - Its superb! I posted the question as i wasn't sure which Pipit it is. By the way - this bird was about 8 yards from the rusty boat! Anyway thanks for your comments.
Jane - it was a very dark and merky afternoon at Stanpit so i have adjusted the clarity and contrast in photoshop. I hope this hasn't given a false impression of colouration.
I didn't realise that both outer and 2nd outermost tail feathers were white on a WP.
thanks for your help - I really struggle on Pipit ids,
alan
 
Certainly a Rock Pipit. In addition to the tail, note the blurred streaking below and lack of any kind of supercillium.
 
Just a reminder about the best features for separating spinoletta from littoralis. In order:


1.Warm brown rump: not littoralis*
2.Significant white wedge in T5: almost certainly not in littoralis**
3.Neat sparse and defined underpart: extremely rare in littoralis
4.Well marked supercilium: Most littoralis have a typical Rock Pipit face, dominated by the eye-ring, though a small percentage can have Water Pipit-like white supers

Call is useful if you are familiar with them and it is fortunate that littoralis that have the most spinoletta-like build also have the least spinoletta-like plumage.


White wing bars and white outer webs to the outer tail feathers are frequent in littoralis.




*There was one warm brown rumped bird, presumed Water Pipit that had several pro littoralis features in east Lancashire about 10 years ago - I just can't find it)
** The Hannafore Pipit, which may be a littoralis had this feature
 
Jane as you appreciate...most birders even in 'good light' find the seperation of these two species a challenge..particularly at this time of the year! In my experience there is a fair amount of variability within this group. If we look at littoralis...take the supercillium..this can be more pronounced and insignificant! to the point of being a questionable aid in ID. The outer-tail margins can show a varying amount of hard white from a 'barely' discernible white/grey tip, to being a very noticeable white third of outer..and grey!
I've also seen littoralis that have an overall olive wash to the upperparts, and as I understand it, there is much overlap and variability within the Baltic, from where many of our wintering birds originate. As for the points in your previous post..yes they are a good rule of (variable) thumb and can work in unison as a 'full suite of features' to aid ID. As far as the three images are concerned!..clearly there has been a photo correction to the images, looking perhaps sharper/and more contrasty than they might have, given the poor light stated as per alanc. The second image..to my eye shows perhaps a slightly warmer crown/nape, not from my experience a pro littoralis feature! However this could well be a direct result of the photo correction, Ideally a shot of the 'exposed' rump would have given more help.

;)
 
My point was Ken.... many features overlap but if you want to be sure you have a Water pipit, you need the rump colour and ideally the pattern of the second outermost TF.

There are a good number of birds that are not safely identified without those features. That said there is enough showing on this one to be confident its not spinoletta.You'd want to have all the overlapping features (present too)
 
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