Tree/Meadow Pipit? (1 Viewer)

[Frost1976]

I'm afraid I don't have a picture but I was wondering whether someone wiser than me might have an idea about difference.

Couple of days ago near Chagmore, Dartmoor, I saw a pipit alight on a tree on farmland. There was a forest one side, farmland the other.

I thought it was probably a Meadow but the barring on the wings (Median I think is the right term) seemed quite pronounced (ie white/bright) and that was what made me wonder. I've read about the streaking on the belly but I've only learned that since.

I appreciate that without a photo, it's all academic, but does anyone know if a) it's the right habitat and b) that's a good way of telling em apart or will it depend on the bird?

 

[Mike Feely]

did you hear it call or sing?

 

[phil baber]

Meadows will often perch in trees.

A good look at the bill (thicker and pinkish based in Tree, thinner and yellowish based in Mipit), the flank streaking thickness ( more delicate and fainter in Tree), the hind claw length (hard to see in the field! Mipits have seriously long ones...), the call (try xeno-canto's sound files..)

These are some starting points. There are more in a "suite of features" that separate the two. I'm sure others will add some of their useful pointers!

Not much to go on here for myself. I don't know the area and suitability for Tree Pipit there. But it may be worth visiting a site well known for Tree Pipit (maybe in Surrey itself?) and having a better start from that action?

Learning the calls and song of Tripit might also help?

http://www.xeno-canto.org/europe/browse.php?query=tree+pipit