Tree Pipit

The tree pipit (Anthus trivialis) is a slim pipit breeding across much of Europe and northern Asia and spending the non-breeding season mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. Adults are about 14–15 cm long and weigh around 22 g. Like most pipits it is brown and streaked, with a pale eyebrow and heavily marked breast.

It can be difficult to separate from the meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis), but tree pipits tend to have a slightly stronger bill, paler legs, less heavily streaked flanks and a shorter, more curved hind claw. Habitat, calls and especially the display flight are often more useful than any single plumage feature.

Tree pipits favour open woodland, forest edges, clearings and other semi-open habitats where scattered trees or tall shrubs stand above a relatively open ground layer. They generally avoid both dense closed forest and completely treeless landscapes.

The combination of open feeding ground and elevated song posts is especially important during the breeding season. In parts of western Europe the species has declined where woodland has become taller and denser, reducing the patchy structure it prefers.

Small invertebrates dominate the diet, especially insects and spiders taken from the ground and low vegetation. During the breeding season these animal foods are particularly important for growing chicks.

Adults may also catch insects in short flights, and some seeds and other plant material are eaten outside the breeding season. Most feeding nevertheless takes place on or close to the ground beneath the scattered trees and shrubs that characterise breeding habitat.

Tree pipits spend much of their active time on the ground, walking through open patches while feeding, but they repeatedly move up into trees and tall shrubs to watch their surroundings and use prominent branches as song posts. This alternation between ground activity and elevated perches is characteristic of the semi-open woodland habitat they prefer.

During the breeding season males are territorial and advertise especially conspicuously with song flights. A male commonly launches from the top of a tree or another prominent perch, climbs into the air and then descends with partly spread wings in a slow, parachuting glide while singing. The display serves both territorial advertisement and mate attraction and is often one of the easiest ways to distinguish a tree pipit from the similar meadow pipit. One of the repeated phrases in the song can sound a little like a laser-pistol effect.

Tree pipits are long-distance migrants. European breeding birds leave mainly from August into September and travel to wintering areas in sub-Saharan Africa, returning north in spring, usually from April into May. Populations breeding farther east in Asia also winter in southern Asia.

Migration links open woodland breeding habitats across Eurasia with savanna, woodland and scrub habitats thousands of kilometres farther south. Conditions at stopover and wintering sites therefore form an important part of the species’ annual cycle, not just the habitat used during breeding.

The nest is built on the ground, usually well concealed by grass or low vegetation. The female builds the cup from grasses and other plant material and typically lays 4–5 eggs.

The female incubates for about 13 days. The chicks are altricial, hatching poorly developed and dependent on their parents, and normally leave the nest after roughly another two weeks. Both parents feed them, bringing mainly small invertebrates. The ground nest is well concealed, helping to reduce the risk that eggs and chicks are discovered.

The tree pipit is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List. It has a very large breeding and wintering range.

Populations have nevertheless declined substantially in parts of Europe over the longer term. Changes in woodland structure, particularly the loss of open and patchy breeding habitat, are important locally, and the species also depends on suitable conditions along its migration routes and in African wintering areas.