Olive-backed Pipit
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| Olive-backed Pipit | ||||||||||||||
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| Anthus hodgsoni Richmond, 1907 |
The Olive-backed Pipit, Anthus hodgsoni, is a small passerine bird which breeds across temperate Asia. It breeds in the north east of European Russia, but is only a rare vagrant in western Europe. It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to southern Asia and Indonesia.
This is a small pipit, which resembles the Tree Pipit. Its back is more olive-toned and less streaked than that species, and its head pattern is different with a better-marked supercilium. Like the Tree Pipit, Olive-backed will readily perch in trees.
The call is a strong spek similar to Tree Pipit. The song flight is also like that species, but is faster and higher pitched.
The breeding habitat is open woodland and scrub. The nest is on the ground, with 3-5 eggs being laid. This species is insectivorous, like its relatives, but will also take seeds.
The scientific name of this bird commemorates the British ornithologist Brian Houghton Hodgson.