A difficult Pipit
Where I live in the Pennines, Meadow Pipits are a very common breeding bird and often settle on walls and rocks. So I'd say more than 99.9% of wall-perching Pipits will be Meadow Pipits. But the very similar Tree Pipit can also perch on walls and rocks, and Meadow Pipits can perch in trees, so we cannot rely on that. The best plumage feature to separate Tree Pipit from Meadow Pipit is the flank streaking. In Meadow Pipit the breast streaking continues boldly down the flanks towards the tail, whereas on Tree Pipit the flanks are more finely streaked than the breast, which identifies this problematic pipit as a Tree Pipit. This one called a drawn out, buzzing "speez" to confirm its identity, quite unlike the sip-sip-sip of Meadow Pipit. Tree Pipit's bill is slightly stronger, and appears to angle upwards from the face, and if you could see the hindclaw it would look normal, whereas Meadow Pipit has an abnormally long hindclaw.
The name Pipit comes originally from the Latin verb pipio, meaning to chirp, and "Tree" because their parachuting song flight usually ends with them landing on the top of a small tree, though they are not woodland birds. The scientific name is Anthus trivialis. Anthus was a grassland bird mentioned by Pliny. Trivialis literally means where roads meet (tri via), but then came to mean ordinary or commonplace (and trivial). I photographed this migrant recently in the Peak District in South Yorkshire.
A difficult Pipit
Where I live in the Pennines, Meadow Pipits are a very common breeding bird and often settle on walls and rocks. So I'd say more than 99.9% of wall-perching Pipits will be Meadow Pipits. But the very similar Tree Pipit can also perch on walls and rocks, and Meadow Pipits can perch in trees, so we cannot rely on that. The best plumage feature to separate Tree Pipit from Meadow Pipit is the flank streaking. In Meadow Pipit the breast streaking continues boldly down the flanks towards the tail, whereas on Tree Pipit the flanks are more finely streaked than the breast, which identifies this problematic pipit as a Tree Pipit. This one called a drawn out, buzzing "speez" to confirm its identity, quite unlike the sip-sip-sip of Meadow Pipit. Tree Pipit's bill is slightly stronger, and appears to angle upwards from the face, and if you could see the hindclaw it would look normal, whereas Meadow Pipit has an abnormally long hindclaw.
The name Pipit comes originally from the Latin verb pipio, meaning to chirp, and "Tree" because their parachuting song flight usually ends with them landing on the top of a small tree, though they are not woodland birds. The scientific name is Anthus trivialis. Anthus was a grassland bird mentioned by Pliny. Trivialis literally means where roads meet (tri via), but then came to mean ordinary or commonplace (and trivial). I photographed this migrant recently in the Peak District in South Yorkshire.