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Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Meadow Pipit
Meadow Pipit
Anthus pratensis
Gaelic: Didig, Mioneum, Snathag
Photograph © Debbie Bozkurt
Sollas - North Uist - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
17th September, 2006
Our pipit photographs
Resident
14 - 15.5cm (Sparrow-sized bird, with the general appearance of a tiny Song Thrush).
There is a lot of variation in the belly colour of Meadow pipits, they range from a grey-brown to a quite bright yellowish-buff against which their dark streaks show strongly.Legs can be dark brown, and sometimes very reddish.
Meadow Pipits have a narrow pointed beak - the sign of insect eaters. They eat spiders, moths beetles and flies etc.
They show white outer tail feathers when flying (compare to wheatears and stonechats which also have white rumps in flight and are about the same size, but are otherwise visually very different).
It is the Meadow Pipit that flys up then "slowly parachutes down" trilling away in Spring.
They generally have a "seep-seep" call, and will often answer you back if you mimic it.The Meadow Pipit is often the only bird which we see on the moor in Winter.
Meadow pipits are common breeders in most of the Western Isles.
They prefer the moorland where they nest in the heather, but will also appear in our gardens sometimes, and even in the saltmarsh areas.The meadow pipit is one of the species which the cuckoo delegates it's parental responsibilities to. Occasionally around the time of the second brood you might see several meadow pipits chasing off a cuckoo.
Rock pipits, are frequently found here around the rocky shore, they are generally like a very greyish-brown version of a meadow pipit, and have dark legs.
Debbie's online photo album
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