Anthus cinnamomeus
Silhouette: Susan Murphy (original photograph), T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The African pipit (Anthus cinnamomeus) 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. It was formerly lumped together with the Richard's, Australian, mountain and paddyfield pipits in a single species, Richard's pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae), but is now often treated as a species in its own right.
It has some defining characteristics, such as light brown feathers on the head and back, dark brown feathers on the lower back and tail, and a white chest. Some 15 subspecies are recognized: A. (c.) camaroonensis Shelley, 1900 – highlands of western Cameroon Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 3 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 5 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 10 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Grassveld Pipit sighting in Durban on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 178th most-seen of the 219 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Grassveld Pipit in Durban on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grassveld Pipit sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 11
Of the 11 cities where we can rate Grassveld Pipit sightings, Durban ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Dar es-Salaam (Tanzania, about 30%), Maputo (Mozambique, about 20%) and Mombasa (Kenya, about 10%).
Same family: Motacillidae
The closest relatives of the Grassveld Pipit that you can see in Durban (family Motacillidae, Wagtails and Pipits) are Cape Wagtail (about 50%) and African Pied Wagtail (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grassveld Pipit is recorded against all the birds logged in Durban (9 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
