Red-throated Pipit? First for South America

[AndyB]

Dušan M. Brinkhuizen sent us these photos of a pipit he photographed last week along the coast of Ecuador. He asked for some ID confirmation. Would you agree it's a Red-throated Pipit which would be a first for Ecuador and also S. America?

[Mark Andrews]

Blimey! Looks good for a Red-throated Pipit, 1st winter. Seems to have a yellowish green tinge to the base of the bill which is good, not pinkish aka Tree Pipit. Not particularly well marked below but within range, I'm surprised the underparts are not a little whiter but there are some similar birds photographed in the photographic guide to the birds of Japan

[Brian S]

I'm with Mark on this one.

It certainly looks like a good contender for Red-throated Pipit to me. There are many factors that make me believe this: colour and tone of the upperparts - an ochreous brown, with strong streaks (even on the uppertail coverts); the creamy colour of the underparts with neat black streaking; the clean and clear-cut supercilium, which extends broadly onto the lores; the bil-base colour is yellow; the wing bars seem quite white (though perhaps not as white as on some - this may be a colour cast to the images). Though the pale (white) mantle braces are not especially well-marked, and the legs seem rather bright and reddish pink (most commonly they are straw-yellow, through yellow-brown to reddish brown), I can't think what else it might be.

Brian S

[Alex Lees]

I'm with Mark on this one.

It certainly looks like a good contender for Red-throated Pipit to me. There are many factors that make me believe this: colour and tone of the upperparts - an ochreous brown, with strong streaks (even on the uppertail coverts); the creamy colour of the underparts with neat black streaking; the clean and clear-cut supercilium, which extends broadly onto the lores; the bil-base colour is yellow; the wing bars seem quite white (though perhaps not as white as on some - this may be a colour cast to the images). Though the pale (white) mantle braces are not especially well-marked, and the legs seem rather bright and reddish pink (most commonly they are straw-yellow, through yellow-brown to reddish brown), I can't think what else it might be.

Brian S

Thirded, so I guess this could be a clue as to where all those (http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v083n01/p0135-p0136.pdf)birds on passage through California could be heading, the CRBC stopped considering records of this species as long ago as 1991...

Alex

[Josh Jones]

Yes, looks good for Red-throated Pipit for reasons already outlined... as Alex suggests, could this be where Californian birds are heading for the winter?!

[AndyB]

Thanks all for the feedback. With the recent Yellow-browed Warbler wintering in Mexico a couple of winters back maybe there's a host of asian birds wintering in central and south america each year...

[Alex Lees]

Thanks all for the feedback. With the recent Yellow-browed Warbler wintering in Mexico a couple of winters back maybe there's a host of asian birds wintering in central and south america each year...

Link (http://www.mexicobirding.com/about/gallery/Phylloscopus.html)to the article on the Baja Yellow-browed Warbler, which follows records of Arctic Warbler (http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/wb/v24n01/p0053-p0056.pdf) and Olive-backed Pipit (http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/wb/v31n02/p0117-p0119.pdf) on the peninsula. Considering the low-volume of passage it would be tenuous to suggest that such species could be pseudo-vagrants (sensu Gilroy & Lees 2003) but for some species that have colonised Alaska (e.g. Arctic Warbler) it would make more sense to winter in the Neotropics.... Just that bridge of evolutionary migratory inertia to cross.....

Alex

[Dušan M. Brinkhuizen]

Birders,

Thanks for the help with the ID of this pipit.

I just recieved an email from Per Alström (the author of Pipits and Wagtails) and he agrees it´s a Red-throated Pipit, most probably a first-summer bird.

Dušan

[AndyB]

Had an email from a reader wondering why this isn't a Rosy Pipit. I have zero experience with this species but thought I'd mention it. Images I've looked at still mkaes me think this looks good for red-throated. Anyone weigh in?

[Sherpa]

Rosy Pipits are dark birds. Very heavily streaked. Saw a load in Nepal 3 months ago. They looked nothing like that.

[Alex Lees]

The full paper describing this amazing discovery has now been published online (http://www.neotropicalbirdclub.org/articles/32/Brinkhuizen.pdf).

[MichaelF]

Good one!

I'm amazed that the SACC haven't insisted that the species be renamed Red Throated-Pipit

[Howard King]

A remarkable recording - one that could have been so easily overlooked considering how drab and unremarkable first winter birds can be - an excellent piece of birding - quite a contrast when compared to a full coloured individual (probably male) when seen in the spring.