Richard's Pipit

How to identify

Field marks

1. Pale supercilium; dark eyestripe and moustachial stripe
2. Upperparts rufous with dark stripes
3. Legs and feet long and yellowish-brown; long tail with white outer tail feathers
4. Bill long and dark, with pale yellow base to lower mandible

Voice

A distinctive explosive “shreep”, somewhat like House Sparrow; the song is a monotonous buzzing, repeated continuously during undulating flight.

Similar species

Blyth's Pipit

Blyth's Pipit has a shorter bill, legs and feet and tail, a short curved hind claw, less white on the tail and a quieter call.

Paddyfield Pipit

Paddyfield Pipit is smaller, with a shorter bill and tail, fewer stripes on the breast and a quieter call.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: October–December · Most records: China, Thailand, United Arab Emirates

Richard's Pipit has been recorded at 1,187 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 58 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Mai Po Nature ReserveHong Kong (China)1,149 records
2. Long ValleyHong Kong (China)935 records
3. Kinmen – Shagang RanchChina932 records

Countries and regions with the most records

ChinaThailandUnited Arab EmiratesIndiaPortugalSpainUnited KingdomMongolia

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

Richard's pipit (Anthus richardi) is a medium-sized passerine bird which breeds in open grasslands in the East Palearctic. It is a long-distance migrant moving to open lowlands in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is a rare but regular vagrant to western Europe.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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