Search Help

Pipits and Wagtails (Motacillidae)

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - HBW 9, p. 766

French: Pipit maritime German: Strandpieper Spanish: Bisbita Costero
Other common names: European Rock Pipit; Scandinavian Rock Pipit (littoralis)

Taxonomy: Alauda petrosa Montagu, 1798, coast of Wales.
Possibly forms a clade with A. pratensis, A. roseatus, A. cervinus, A. spinoletta and A. rubescens. May form a superspecies, and until recently treated as conspecific, with last two of those. Variation somewhat clinal, from longer-billed darker birds at NW edge of range to shorter-billed and paler ones in NE; race kleinschmidti sometimes merged with nominate. Proposed races meinertzhageni (described from South Uist, off W Scotland), hesperianus (Arran, off W Scotland) and ponens (NW France) considered inseparable from nominate. Th.. View all taxonomy...

Taxonomy: Alauda petrosa Montagu, 1798, coast of Wales.
Possibly forms a clade with A. pratensis, A. roseatus, A. cervinus, A. spinoletta and A. rubescens. May form a superspecies, and until recently treated as conspecific, with last two of those. Variation somewhat clinal, from longer-billed darker birds at NW edge of range to shorter-billed and paler ones in NE; race kleinschmidti sometimes merged with nominate. Proposed races meinertzhageni (described from South Uist, off W Scotland), hesperianus (Arran, off W Scotland) and ponens (NW France) considered inseparable from nominate. Three subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

  • kleinschmidti Hartert, 1905 - Faeroes and outlying Scottish islands of Shetland, Orkney, Fair Isle and St Kilda.
  • petrosus (Montagu, 1798) - coasts of Ireland, Britain (except SE), Channel Is and N & NW France.
  • littoralis C. L. Brehm, 1823 - breeds coasts of Fennoscandia and NW Russia; winters W European coasts (S from S Scandinavia) and NW Africa.

Videos

See all 13 videos
123next ›last »

Photos

See all 8 photos
12next ›last »
About us | Contact us | FAQ