Tmetothylacus tenellus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The golden pipit (Tmetothylacus tenellus) is a distinctive pipit of dry country grassland, savanna and shrubland in eastern Africa. It is native to Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, and has occurred as a vagrant to Oman, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The adult male, unlike most pipits, is very easy to identify. It is yellow below and yellow in the wings. From the front the yellow throat and breast with the dark band does resemble the yellow-throated longclaw or Pangani longclaw, but neither have yellow wings (very obvious in flight) and both have a black line in the face. The female golden pipit is a fairly typical brown pipit but has a yellow underside to the wing.
It is gold in colour. Videos, photos and sounds - Internet Bird Collection Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Golden Pipit sighting in Tsavo West National Park on a given day, based on 162 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 93rd most-seen of the 380 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and July
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Golden Pipit in Tsavo West National Park on a given day, against about 10% in April, June, August and December, the lowest months. Those are among Tsavo West National Park's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain a month against 140 mm in November.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Golden Pipit sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Golden Pipit sightings, Tsavo West National Park ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Tsavo East National Park (Kenya, about 40%) and Samburu National Reserve (Kenya, about 30%).
Same family: Motacillidae
The closest relatives of the Golden Pipit that you can see in Tsavo West National Park (family Motacillidae, Wagtails and Pipits) are African Pied Wagtail (about 20%), Pangani Longclaw (about 10%) and Tree Pipit (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Golden Pipit is recorded against all the birds logged in Tsavo West National Park (162 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.
