Tawny pipit

    Anthus campestris

Castilian: Bisbita campestre

Catalan: Trobat

Gallego: Pica campestre

Euskera: Landa-txirta

CLASIFICACIÓN:

Orden: Passeriformes

Family: Motacillidae

Migratory status: Summer resident

CONSERVATION STATUS:

On the National List of Threatened Species, it appears in the “Of Special Interest” category. In the 2004 edition of the Red Book of Spanish Birds (Libro Rojo de las Aves de España) it is listed as “Not Evaluated”.

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THREATS

Although it is not especially threatened, it is affected by the changes caused by loss of habitat, such as changes in land use, abandonment of rural land and livestock pastures, reforestation of farm land, etc.

Length / size: 17 cm / 27 cm

Identification: Pipit with a wagtail-like appearance whose legs are yellowish-orange and whose bill is orange on bottom and dark on top.Its back is sand-coloured and faintly striped, while its underparts are cream-coloured. Its wings are rounded and its tail is long with white external feathers. It has a complex pattern on its head: its white forehead gives way to a black eye line, a white moustache whose lower edge is black, and a white throat. It is a territorial species that appears alone, walking on the ground.

Song: It makes a series of two or three notes repeated every few seconds: "cheer-lee".

Diet: Its diet is composed of beetles, grasshoppers and crickets, and also of some seeds and small vertebrates (reptiles). It eats on the ground by pecking and chasing, and by dismembering its larger prey.

Reproduction: The breeding period begins in May. It is a monogamous and territorial species. The female builds the nest on the ground using dry grass under a bush or rock; she is also in charge of incubation. Both sexes care for the chicks, feeding them even several weeks after they leave the nest.

HABITAT

It occupies areas with open vegetation and dry environments, such as pasturelands, farmland, vineyards, uncultivated land, savin forests, and others. It usually breeds from sea level up to an elevation of 2,700 metres in Sierra Nevada.

DISTRIBUTION

In Spain: During migration, it is distributed throughout the entire peninsula, and the Balearic and Canary Islands; during breeding season, it is concentrated in the Northern Plateau and the Ebro Valley, in the mountains of the east of the peninsula, in Cádiz, and in the Balearic Islands.

In Castile and León: It is distributed throughout the entire community.

Movements and migrations: Its wintering ares is the Sahel region in Africa, with largely unnoticeable passages. Its spring passage takes place between March and May, and the autumn one from late July to mid-October.

POPULATION

In Spain: There is an estimated population of more than 500000 breeding pairs.

In Castile and León: