[socksitis]

Please can someonr give me some clues as to how to tell these two apart, when the Skylark does not have the crest bit on it's head.
Does a meadow pipit have orange legs and a skylark not?
Does a skylark have the white edges to the tail and the meadow pipit not?
Does the skylark only do the singing high in the sky and the meadow pipit not?

Any ideas please most welcome.

[paulwfromtheden]

Originally Posted by socksitis

Please can someonr give me some clues as to how to tell these two apart, when the Skylark does not have the crest bit on it's head.
Does a meadow pipit have orange legs and a skylark not?
Does a skylark have the white edges to the tail and the meadow pipit not?
Does the skylark only do the singing high in the sky and the meadow pipit not?

Any ideas please most welcome.

Skylark is bigger and have a more 'fluttery flight'. They also have totally different song/call, check out the RSPB site for the link to their songs.

[nickderry]

although they may look similar at first, they are both very different once you get your eye in.

Size - Skylark is bigger and chunkier
Behaviour - Skylark shuffles and bumbles along, pipits amble around quickly and aimlessly like a wagtail.
Bill - Skylark's is very noticeably thicker than a pipit's fine bill.
Crest - If it has one it's a skylark.

Both have white sides to the tail, but a skylark also has a white trailing edge to the wing, the flight action is also very different, skylark being hovery and fluttery, pipit is direct with clear short 'flits' interspersed with wings held closed.

Call - Pipit's 'tsip' is quite distinctive, compared to a lark's liquid trilling and rasping contact notes.

Leg colour is useless in distinguishing the two.

Here's a clip of a meadow pipit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb8M36aeK9c

[nickderry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJDU2...eature=related

and a skylark to compare, the quality is a bit poor, but you get the idea.

[socksitis]

Thank you so much.
It's when I see them on the ground I am confused. I can see that the skylark is bigger,saw some today, when in flight I know which is which, it's when they are bumbling around on the fround that I get confused.

[Feathered one]

I managed to digiscope this picture last weekend.

Malc

[citrinella]

Originally Posted by socksitis

Thank you so much.
It's when I see them on the ground I am confused. I can see that the skylark is bigger,saw some today, when in flight I know which is which, it's when they are bumbling around on the fround that I get confused.

To me, when I see them head on, meadow pipit always appear to have a dense patch of spots just below the throat, high on the breast.

If you are lucky enough to get good views of them perching on wires, look at the hind claws. They are massively longer on meadow pipit (all pipit). This isn't as difficult to see as it sounds. On a typical 11kv line* skylark claws won't come round the bottom of the wires, meadow pipit will and, against the sky, they show OK.

11kv is typical in the UK for local supplies - poles going to farms and villages as opposed to massive pylons serving national transmission purposes, most open country electric wires here in the UK are roughly the same size, and there is no good reason why many other countries should not be the same since they are designed to meet the same purpose. I have seen similar supplies across southern central Africa and in China.

Mike.

[socksitis]

Thanks Mike,
unfortunately no overhead wires on Dartmoor, but will try and look at the feet aswell as the breast. Sometimes I can definately tell a skylark, when it has it's crest up and looks large, other times, no hope!

[silvercrest]

skylarks look quite plump. meadow pipits are much more slender, and browner, and look like little song thrushes. you cant get within a couple of hundred feet of a skylark, but you can often get quite close to a meadow pipit. meadow pipits will often sit until youre fairly close before they flush, and they dance around daintily, usually calling tseep-tseep as they fly daintily around you, reasonably close - thats my experience anyway