Blyth's pipit (''Anthus godlewskii'') is a medium-sized

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

which breeds in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and neighbouring areas of China, Tibet and India . It is a long distance migrant moving to open lowlands in Southern Asia. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe. This is a large

pipit The pipits are a cosmopolitan genus, ''Anthus'', of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Along with the wagtails and longclaws, the pipits make up the family Motacillidae. The genus is widespread, occurring across most of the world, ...

, but is an undistinguished looking species on the ground, mainly brown above and pale below. It is very similar to

Richard's pipit Richard's pipit (''Anthus richardi'') is a medium-sized passerine bird which breeds in open grasslands in the East Palearctic. It is a long-distance bird migration, migrant moving to open lowlands in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It ...

, but is slightly smaller, shorter legs and a shorter dark bill. Its flight is strong and direct, and it gives a characteristic "pshee" call, higher pitched than Richard's. In south Asia, in winter some care must be taken to distinguish this from other large pipits which winter or are resident in the area, including Richard's. This species is insectivorous. This bird was named after the English zoologist

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

. The genus name ''Anthus'' is the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name for a small bird of grasslands. The specific ''godlewskii'' commemorates Polish nobleman and field naturalist Victor Godlewski.

Gallery

File:Blyth_s_Pipit_Anthus_godlewskii.jpg, Blyth's pipit File:Anthus godlewskii cropped.jpg, First winter plumage. File:Blyth's-Pipit.jpg, At Manohara River,

Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley (), also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley (, Newar language, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः), National Capital Area, is a bowl-shaped valley located in the Himalayas, Hima ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Gallery

References

Further reading

Identification