Looks like a normal petrosus rock pipit to me
Looks like a normal petrosus rock pipit to me
Looks like Anthus Littoralis.
To clarify - there is no such species/thing known as Anthus Littoralis.
My experience of petrosus (every day for the last 20 years or so) is that they look like this at this time of year.
A.p.littoralis (as I understand it?) is the sub species of A.petrosus and is a regular Winter visitor to the UK?
Do you see them in summer? They are greyer in summer
Littoralis can look a little greyer than petrosus outside of the breeding season - but many littoralis are probably not safely separable from petrosus in this plumage - so olive toned birds could be either.
The birds in the OP are well within range for the rather sedentary petrosus, and look like petrosus, so that's probably what they are.
Dan's link makes interesting reading regarding olive washed birds?
In terms of olive birds I don't think it adds much that hasn't already been said here (although it's obviously very detailed and an excellent resource). It says:
The vast majority of birds (at least) are not safely assignable to either sub-species in nonbreeding plumage.
Of non-breeding petrosus; Characteristically olive-grey, most pronounced on the lower back and rump.
And of non-breeding littoralis; Can sometimes tend to be slightly more brownish and less olive in tone.
So - both subspecies are likely to look olive but the one more likely to look less olive is littoralis.
Your bird face on might be littoralis as it has quite a pronounced supercilium and I guess range might suit that too - but I wouldn't like to say for sure