Water Pipit, Waterpieper, Bergpieper, Petinha-ribeirinha, Bisbita Alpino
Spotted in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Water Pipit sound
The Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of southern Europe and southern temperate Asia across to China. It is a short-distance migrant moving to wet open lowlands such as marshes and flooded fields in winter.
More photos at the bottom of this page.
Like most other pipits, this is an undistinguished looking species on the ground, mainly brown above and dark streaked buff below. It has dark legs, white outer tail feathers and a longish dark bill. In summer it has a distinctive breeding plumage, with a pinkish breast, grey head and pale supercilium.
The Eurasian Rock Pipit’s subspecies littoralis in summer plumage is very close in outward appearance to the Water Pipit however. They can be told apart by their song, and occupy different habitat types even when they occur in the same general area. The Water Pipit is also much less approachable than the Eurasian Rock Pipit, rising high and quickly leaving the vicinity when approached. Water and Buff-bellied Pipit do not co-occur except in a small area in Central Asia.
This species is insectivorous. Its call is an explosive “fit”, like Eurasian Rock Pipit. Its song is similar, but it consisting of maybe 5 “blocks” of just about half a dozen notes each (the Eurasian Rock Pipit has fewer, but longer blocks); it ends either with no or with repeated trills.
Formerly included in the Water Pipit were the subspecies now separated as Rock Pipit and Buff-bellied Pipit. The former is more closely related to the Water Pipit than the latter, as indicated by external and molecular characteristics.
Other synonyms:
Asturian: Zapiqueru, Zarapica Chis
Breton: Ar sidan-froud
Catalan: Grasset de muntanya, Titeta gola-roja, Titina de muntanya
Catalan (Balears): Titina de muntanya
Valencian: Titeta gola-roja
Czech: Linduška horská
Welsh: Corhedydd y dwr, Ehedydd bach, Pibydd y
Danish: Bjergpiber, Skærpiber
German: Bergpieper, Strandpieper, Wasserpieper
English: Alpine Pipit, American Pipit, Mountain Pipit, Rock Pipit, Water Pipit
Esperanto: bordpipio
Spanish: Bisbita Alpina, Bisbita Alpino, Bisbita de Agua, Bisbita Gorgirrufa, Bisbita ribereño, Bisbita ribereño alpino, Bisbita Ribereño Costero
Spanish (Mexico): Bisbita Gorgirrufa
Estonian: mägikiur
Basque: Grasset de muntanya , Mendi-txirti
Finnish: Loutokirvinen, Vuorikirvinen
Faroese: Grátítlingur
French: Pipit aquatique, Pipit commun, Pipit obscur, Pipit spioncelle
Irish: Riabhóg chladaigh, Riabhóg Uisce
Gaelic: Gabhagan
Galician: Grasset de muntanya , Pica alpina
Manx: Fushag Varrey
Croatian: Planinska Trepetljka, Planinska trepteljka, Trepteljka pojarica
Hungarian: Havasi pityer
Icelandic: Bergtittlingur, Fjalltittlingur
Italian: Spioncello, Spioncello alpino, Spioncello marino
Japanese: tahibari, Ta-hibari
Cornish: Corawhesyth an als
Latin: Anthus rubescens, Anthus spinoletta, Anthus spinoletta meinertzhageni, Pipastes spinoletta
Lithuanian: Vandeninis kalviukas
Dutch: Amerikaanse Waterpieper, Oeverpieper, Waterpieper
Norwegian: Skjærpiplerke, Vannpiplerke
Polish: siwerniak, siwierniak, Swiergotek rdzawogardly
Portuguese: Petinha, petinha ribeirinha, Petinha/-ribeirinha/-maritima, Petinha-das-rochas, Petinha-maritima, Petinha-ribeirinha
Romansh: Pivet da muntogna
Russian: Gorny Konyok
Scots: Gabhagan, Glasian
Slovenian: vriskarica
Albanian: Drenja e malit
Serbian: planinska trepteljka
Swedish: Skärpiplärka, Vattenpiplärka
Travel Birdwatching Holiday Alentejo, Vacation Portugal for birders to see birds on your trip.