Red-throated Pipit Life History

Habitat

Red-throated Pipits breed on both alpine and coastal tundra. They nest in wet, shrubby areas with small streams and willow scrub. During migration and the nonbreeding season, Red-throated Pipits often occur in wet open habitats, including meadows, pastures, agricultural fields, and the muddy, grassy edges of rivers, lakes, marshes, and other wetlands.

Food

Red-throated Pipits forage on the ground, feeding mainly on insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. Important insect prey include ants, beetles, flies, caterpillars, butterflies, and moths.

Nesting

Nest Placement

The female builds the nest in a hollow that the male has created on the ground on a hummock or bank.

Nest Description

A cup constructed of grass, leaves, and moss at the base, and then lined with finer grass, hair, and feathers.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

Red-throated Pipits feed on the ground, lifting the tail up and down as they forage. They also perch on rocks, bushes, fences, and wires. On the wintering grounds, they often occur in areas where cattle have trampled vegetation to create muddy bare spots. During migration and the nonbreeding season, Red-throated Pipits gather in loose, sometimes large flocks, and may associate with other pipits and wagtails. When flushed, they often fly just a short distance before dropping down to the ground again and disappearing.

Male Red-throated Pipits perform two different types of song flights—aerial displays performed while singing. In one song flight, the male flies upward 10–20 meters (33–66 feet) before parachuting downward again. In the second type, he flies horizontally for up to 50 meters (164 feet) on slightly fluttery wings before dropping down to a perch or the ground. The male begins the nesting process by creating a hollow on the ground, and the female then builds the nest and incubates the eggs. Both parents feed the nestlings until the fledge after 11–15 days.

Conservation

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Red-throated Pipit’s conservation status as Least Concern due to an extremely large range, stable population trend, and extremely large population size (estimated at 2 million individuals).

Credits

Alström P, Mild K, Zetterström B 2003 Pipits and wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America. Christopher Helm, London

BirdLife International. 2019. Anthus cervinus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T22718560A137415441. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T22718560A137415441.en.

Brazil, M. (2009). Field Guide to the Birds of East Asia: Eastern China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Eastern Russia. Christopher Helm, London, UK.

Dunne, P. (2006). Pete Dunne’s essential field guide companion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, USA.

Jonsson, L. (1992). Birds of Europe with North Africa and the Middle East. Christopher Helm, London, United Kingdom.

Sibley, D. A. (2014). The Sibley Guide to Birds, second edition. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, USA.

Svensson, L., K. Mullarney, and D. Zetterström (2009). Collins Bird Guide. Second edition. HarperCollins, London, UK.

Tyler, S. (2020). Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.retpip.01

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