Pipit, South Devon (1 Viewer)

[rylirk]

A friend took these photos in South Devon a few days ago near Prawle Point, and we've been struggling to come up with an ID for it...

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,
its a Water Pipit imo. Please note against Rock Pipit

• lack of any dark/olive hues. Your bird is ID-friendly in this.
• Underparts are bright, pure and striking white. There is an excellent ID-article, that was allready mentioned here: Winter Water Pipit ID
• at first, I thought, maybe two birds are involved (underparts appear not strikingly white in the first picture), but this is surely due to light, and viewing angle.
• outer tail feathers seems to be pure white, even in the first picture (where underparts are somewhat "off-white"

There were other threads here on birdforum, where Water-Pipit lookalikes were discussed. Please compare colouration of your bird to your ID-friendly Water Pipit.

 

[Prestdj]

i looked at this bird earlier and im glad alexander has commented

pic 2 shows the best overall look of the bird

at first glance i thought rock pipit but on a second look i thought water pipit, this pipit looks inbetween

for water pipit bill shape and wingbars
for rock pipit overall colour

but the lores look odd

but could it be buff bellied?? itry but i always get it wrong

 

[Redmist]

An interesting one but I think Alexander is right on this based on clean white underparts, among others. As for Buff Bellied, it’s certainly not the bird described here from the same location last week