American Pipit Anthus rubescens Scientific name definitions

When referring to the American Pipit in Alberta, Salt and Salt (1976:337) wrote: "In some high mountain meadow above tree line, where tiny rivulets work their way from melting ice through boulders and moss and stunted shrubbery, a Water Pipit will rise before them with its characteristic sip-it note. And with luck the nest may be found sunk in moss under a half-expose rock."

Pipits occur on all continents, except Antarctica, with many species that are often difficult to distinguish from each other. The American Pipit was considered a subspecies of the Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta), a wide-ranging species with seven subspecies breeding from the shores of Great Britain and Scandinavia, through the high mountains and Arctic tundra of Europe and Asia, to alpine and Arctic tundra in North America. A set of taxonomic studies, largely relying on DNA and vocalizations, has subsequently separated Water Pipit into four distinct species, one of which is the American Pipit.

The American Pipit breeds in Arctic and alpine tundra from western Alaska to western Greenland and south to New Hampshire, northern Manitoba, New Mexico, and central California. During the nonbreeding season it inhabits a variety of open habitats including beaches, lake shores, marshes, mudflats, agricultural fields and pastures, river courses, sod farms, and wastewater treatment plants south to the southern tip of Baja California Sur, central Oaxaca, and central Veracruz, Mexico; the northern boundary of the nonbreeding range is somewhat blurry, defined in part by the availability of unfrozen ground and open water. Its diet consists largely of small invertebrates, including insects, spiders, marine worms, and crustacean, though during the fall seeds are sometimes consumed. Prey is found mostly by walking and scanning. When potential prey is located, it is rapidly procured by pecking or gleaning, with the pipit, at times, running towards its hoped for meal before attacking.

The American Pipit is socially monogamous with pair bonds lasting only for one breeding season. Pair formation begins as birds arrive at their breeding grounds, the timing of which depends upon suitable nest sites being freed of snow and meltwater. The nest is a cup built by the female — typically on dead vegetation, lichen, or bare earth — at a spot where it is largely concealed by vegetation, sod, or rock. Into this nest is laid three to seven dull-colored eggs, with larger clutches tending to occur in more northerly populations and smaller clutches to the south. The eggs are incubated entirely by the female and usually hatch in 14 days. Only the female broods the young, but both parents do feed them, with fledging typically occurring 14 days after hatching. The young are fed by their parents for about two weeks after they fledge, at which time family members tend to disperse.

The global population of the American Pipit is estimated to be 22 million birds. Any trend in this number has yet to be deciphered, but such is in need of study.