Anthus pratensis
Silhouette: Susan Murphy (original photograph), T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis) is a small passerine bird that breeds throughout much of the Palearctic, from south-eastern Greenland and Iceland east to just east of the Ural Mountains in Russia, and south to central France and Romania; an isolated population also occurs in the Caucasus Mountains. It is migratory over most of its range, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, and south-western Asia, but is resident year-round in western Europe, although even here many birds move to the coast or lowlands in winter.
The meadow pipit was formally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Alauda pratensis. The type locality is Sweden. The meadow pipit is now the type species of the genus Anthus that was introduced in 1805 by German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein. The species is monotypic; no subspecies are recognised.
The generic name Anthus is the Latin name for a small grassland bird mentioned by Pliny the Elder, and the specific name pratensis means "of a meadow ", from pratum, "meadow". The name "pipit", first documented by Thomas Pennant in 1768, is onomatopoeic, from the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Vatnajokull National Park | 🇮🇸 Iceland | |
| 3 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 5 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 7 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 8 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 10 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 11 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 12 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 13 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 14 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 15 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 16 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 17 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 18 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 19 | Tatra National Park | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 20 | Gauja National Park | 🇱🇻 Latvia | |
| 21 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 22 | Aigüestortes National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 23 | Triglav National Park | 🇸🇮 Slovenia |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Meadow Pipit sighting in Vatnajokull National Park on a given day, based on 285 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 12th most-seen of the 73 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Meadow Pipit in Vatnajokull National Park on a given day, against about 10% in November to March, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Meadow 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.
2nd of 23
Of the 23 parks where we can rate Meadow Pipit sightings, Vatnajokull National Park ranks 2nd at about 40%. The best odds are in Wadden Sea National Park (Germany, about 50%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Meadow Pipit is recorded against all the birds logged in Vatnajokull National Park (285 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.
