Sunday, March 10, 2019

Puzzling pipit, possible Icelandic Meadow??

Me and DF took these pictures of an odd looking pipit at Walshaw Dean yesterday. It was very orangey buff coloured underneath but appeared to have pink legs and a dark bill which didn't seem to fit any species. I recall seeing a similar bird some 6 years ago at Castle Carr Road Wainstalls also in March and I came to the conclusion it must be the Icelandic Meadow Pipit. Any thoughts welcome.
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3 comments:

Brian Sumner . said...

The Icelandic Mipits we,ve had on vis mig at TMR in the past stood out as very light birds with almost white breast and dark vertical stripes that stand out. Having said that we only saw autumn birds.
We used to get so many variants up there which DCB used to say they were from different areas, from pale-ish birds to very dark brown to green. A bit of a nightmare Mipits.
Yours has an interesting super from the back of the eye.
DCB or MC could be the man for this.

5:48 pm
AndyC said...

I have seen Mipits like this before in spring with bright red/orange breasts and I think they have been in southern Europe for the winter , the ones I have seen seem to be a bit bigger and brighter.This one is an odd looking bird , head and bill look dull might be just the light...??

7:10 pm
David Sutcliffe said...

Comments from Andy H - "...thought is that the coloration could be the result of sand following a sub-Saharan migration

9:58 pm

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