Australasian Pipit
Encyclopedia
The Australasian Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae) is a fairly small passerine
bird
of open country in Australia
, New Zealand
and New Guinea
. It belongs to the pipit
genus Anthus in the family Motacillidae
.
It was formerly lumped together with the Richard's
, African
, Mountain
and Paddyfield Pipit
s in a single species: Richard's Pipit, Anthus novaeseelandiae. Some authors split the Australasian Pipit further into two species: Australian Pipit (Anthus australis) in Australia and New Guinea and New Zealand Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae) in New Zealand.
is pale brown above with dark streaks. The underparts are pale with streaks on the breast. There is a pale stripe over the eye and dark malar and moustachial stripes. The long tail has white outer-feathers and is often wagged up and down. The legs are long and pinkish-brown while the bill
is slender and brownish.
It has a sparrow-like chirruping call and a drawn-out "tswee" call.
It is a bird of open habitat
s such as grassland, farmland, roadsides, dry river beds, sand dunes and open woodland. It forages on the ground for small invertebrates such as beetle
s, spider
s and insect
larva
e. It will also eat seed
s such as those of grass
es.
The breeding season begins in August. The cup-shaped nest
is placed at the base of vegetation or in the shelter of a stone. It is made of grass and built by the female. Two to five eggs
are laid, three or four being most common. They are buff-white with brown blotching and are incubated
for 14 to 15 days. The young birds are fed by both parents and are able to fly after 14 to 16 days.
The birds' numbers have declined in parts of New Zealand due to the improvement of pasture
s, use of pesticide
s and predation by introduced species
.
A number of subspecies
are recognized:
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
of open country in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
. It belongs to the pipit
Pipit
The pipits are a cosmopolitan genus, Anthus, of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Along with the wagtails and longclaws, the pipits make up the family Motacillidae...
genus Anthus in the family Motacillidae
Motacillidae
The Motacillidae are a family of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. There are around 65 species in 6 genera and they include the wagtails, longclaws and pipits. The longclaws are entirely restricted to the Afrotropics, and the wagtails are predominately found in Europe, Africa and...
.
It was formerly lumped together with the Richard's
Richard's Pipit
The Richard's Pipit is a medium-sized passerine bird which breeds in open grasslands in northern Asia. It is a long-distance migrant moving to open lowlands in southern Asia. It is a rare but regular vagrant to western Europe...
, African
African Pipit
The African Pipit is a fairly small passerine bird belonging to the pipit genus Anthus in the family Motacillidae. It is also known as the Grassveld Pipit or Grassland Pipit...
, Mountain
Mountain Pipit
The Mountain Pipit is a species of bird in the Motacillidae family.It is found in Lesotho, South Africa, possibly Botswana, possibly Democratic Republic of the Congo, possibly Namibia, and possibly Zambia....
and Paddyfield Pipit
Paddyfield Pipit
Paddyfield Pipit is a small passerine bird in the pipits and wagtail family. It is a resident breeder in open scrub, grassland and cultivation in southern Asia east to the Philippines. Although among the few breeding pipits in the Asian region, identification becomes difficult in winter when...
s in a single species: Richard's Pipit, Anthus novaeseelandiae. Some authors split the Australasian Pipit further into two species: Australian Pipit (Anthus australis) in Australia and New Guinea and New Zealand Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae) in New Zealand.
Description
It is a slender bird, 16 to 19 cm long, and weighs about 40 grams. The plumagePlumage
Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season. Within species there can also be a...
is pale brown above with dark streaks. The underparts are pale with streaks on the breast. There is a pale stripe over the eye and dark malar and moustachial stripes. The long tail has white outer-feathers and is often wagged up and down. The legs are long and pinkish-brown while the bill
Beak
The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...
is slender and brownish.
It has a sparrow-like chirruping call and a drawn-out "tswee" call.
Ecology
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
s such as grassland, farmland, roadsides, dry river beds, sand dunes and open woodland. It forages on the ground for small invertebrates such as beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s, spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s and insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e. It will also eat seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s such as those of grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
es.
The breeding season begins in August. The cup-shaped nest
Nest
A nest is a place of refuge to hold an animal's eggs or provide a place to live or raise offspring. They are usually made of some organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building...
is placed at the base of vegetation or in the shelter of a stone. It is made of grass and built by the female. Two to five eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
are laid, three or four being most common. They are buff-white with brown blotching and are incubated
Avian incubation
Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic fowl, the act of...
for 14 to 15 days. The young birds are fed by both parents and are able to fly after 14 to 16 days.
The birds' numbers have declined in parts of New Zealand due to the improvement of pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
s, use of pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s and predation by introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
.
Subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
are recognized:
- Australian Pipit group
- A. n. australis, A. n. bilbali & A. n. rogersi - mainland Australia
- A. n. bistriatus - TasmaniaTasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
- A. n. exiguus - New Guinea
- New Zealand Pipit group
- A. n. novaeseelandiae - NorthNorth IslandThe North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
, SouthSouth IslandThe South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
and Stewart Islands (birds on North Island are sometimes treated as a separate subspecies A. n. reischeki). - A. n. aucklandicus - Auckland IslandsAuckland IslandsThe Auckland Islands are an archipelago of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands and include Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island and Green Island, with a combined area of...
& Campbell Islands - A. n. chathamensis - Chatham IslandsChatham IslandsThe Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
- A. n. steindachneri - Antipodes IslandsAntipodes IslandsThe Antipodes Islands are inhospitable volcanic islands to the south of—and territorially part of—New Zealand...
- A. n. novaeseelandiae - North