Anthus spinoletta
Silhouette: Susan Murphy (original photograph), T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of Southern Europe and the Palearctic eastwards to China. It is a short-distance migrant; many birds move to lower altitudes or wet open lowlands in winter.
The water pipit in breeding plumage has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. The head is grey with a broad white supercilium ("eyebrow"), and the outer tail feathers are white. In winter, the head is grey-brown, the supercilium is duller, the upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, streaked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks. There are only minor differences among the three subspecies, the sexes are almost identical, and young birds resemble adults. The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about six repetitions of a different short note.
Water pipits construct a cup-like nest on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled grey-ish white eggs, which hatch in about two weeks with a further 14–15 days to fledging. Although pipits occasionally catch insects in flight, they feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the ground or vegetation, and also some plant material.
The water pipit may be hunted by birds of prey, infested by parasites such as fleas, or act as an involuntary host to the common cuckoo, but overall its population is large and stable, and it is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Beijing | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Shijiazhuang | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Jinan | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Cairo | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 6 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 7 | Kathmandu | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 8 | Turin | 🇮🇹 Italy | |
| 9 | Tel Aviv | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 10 | Tehran | 🇮🇷 Iran |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Water Pipit sighting in Oosterschelde National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 153rd most-seen of the 157 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.
February
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Water Pipit in Oosterschelde National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March to January, the lowest months.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Water 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.
22nd of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Water Pipit sightings, Oosterschelde National Park ranks 22nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Vanoise National Park (France, about 50%), Picos de Europa National Park (Spain, about 40%) and Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Anthus
The closest relatives of the Water Pipit that you can see in Oosterschelde National Park (genus Anthus, Pipits) are Meadow Pipit (about 40%) and Rock Pipit (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Water Pipit is recorded against all the birds logged in Oosterschelde National Park (6 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
