Bisbita Norteamericana
Buff-bellied Pipit (American Pipit)
Anthus rubescens
Song
Buff-bellied Pipit (American Pipit)
Appearance: The Buff-bellied Pipit, usually called the American Pipit in North America, is a small, slender, rather plain bird of open country. It has grayish-brown upperparts, pale underparts with fine streaking on the breast and sides, a thin dark bill, long legs, and a habit of walking or running on the ground while pumping or wagging its tail. It may show buff coloring on the face and breast, especially in nonbreeding plumage.
Habitat: It breeds mainly in Arctic tundra and high alpine meadows, including grassy tundra, dwarf-shrub areas, rocky alpine slopes, and open areas above treeline. During migration and winter it uses open, lightly vegetated habitats such as fields, mudflats, shores, wet meadows, pastures, plowed land, and open grassy areas.
Behavior: This pipit is usually seen walking or running on the ground while searching for food. It often wags or pumps its tail and may be overlooked because its colors blend with soil, grass, and mud. It feeds mostly on insects and other small invertebrates during the breeding season, and also takes seeds outside the breeding season. In migration and winter it may form loose flocks, often giving sharp flight calls when flushed.
Breeding: The Buff-bellied/American Pipit is a ground nester. The nest is usually hidden in tundra or alpine meadow vegetation and made from grasses, sedges, and fine plant material. The typical clutch is about 5 eggs, incubation lasts about 13–14 days, and both parents feed the young after hatching. Breeding occurs in northern and high-elevation areas, not in Colombia.
Conservation Status: The Buff-bellied Pipit is considered of Least Concern.
MALE
JUVENILE
Distribution
The Buff-bellied/American Pipit is not a regular Colombian resident or breeding bird. Its normal breeding range is Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and parts of the Rocky Mountains, and its usual winter range extends mainly to the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America. In the Caribbean Sea, records come from Jamaica, Providencia and San Andrés Islands, and Cuba
Taxonomy
The Buff-bellied Pipit (American Pipit) (Anthus rubescens)
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Aves (Birds)
- Order: Passeriformes
- Family: Motacillidae
- Genus: Anthus
- Species: rubescens
Vocalization
The Buff-bellied Pipit (American Pipit) has a thin, sharp voice, often heard when the bird is flying or flushed from the ground.
Alarm call: When disturbed near the ground or nest, it may give sharper, repeated notes such as “chip,” These calls are used to warn other birds or young.
Flight call: The most common call is a high, thin “pip-it,” usually given while flying overhead or when the bird takes off. This call is short, sharp, and slightly buzzy.
Contact call: In flocks, Buff-bellied Pipits give soft, thin “seep” notes to keep in touch while feeding or moving across open fields, mudflats, or tundra.
Song: The male’s song is given mostly during the breeding season, often in a flight display. It is a delicate series of high, tinkling notes and repeated phrases, sometimes described as “tsi-tsi-tsi” or “seep-seep-seep,” delivered while the bird rises and then descends over tundra or alpine meadow habitat.
