The Berthelot’s Pipit is a small passerine

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...

 which breeds in Madeira and the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

. It is a common resident in both archipelagos.

Berthelot’s Pipit is found in open country. The nest is on the ground, with 3-5 eggs being laid.

This is a small 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...

, 13-14.5 cm in length. It is an undistinguished looking species on the ground, mainly grey above and whitish below, with some breast streaking. It has a whitish supercilium

Supercilium

The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head. Also known as an "eyebrow", it is distinct from the eyestripe, which is a line which runs...

 and eyering, with dark eye and moustachial stripes. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are browner than adults.

This species appears shorter tailed and larger headed than Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

The Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis, is a small passerine bird which breeds in much of the northern half of Europe and also northwestern Asia, from southeastern Greenland and Iceland east to just east of the Ural Mountains in Russia, and south to central France and Romania; there is also an isolated...

. Its call is a "schrip" like Yellow Wagtail, and the song, given in flight, is a chattery "tsivrr tsivrr tsivrr tsivrr".

This species is named after the French naturalist Sabin Berthelot

Sabin Berthelot

Sabin Berthelot was a French naturalist and ethnologist. He was resident on the Canary Islands for part of his life, and co-authored L'Histoire Naturelle des Îles Canaries with Philip Barker Webb....

, one-time resident of the Canary Islands, by Carl Bolle.

External links

• Madeira Birds: Berthelot’s Pipit