Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis)
A. pratensis is a small passerine bird which breeds in much of the northern half of Europe and also northwestern Asia. It is mainly brown above and buff below, with darker streaking on most of its plumage; the tail is brown, with narrow white side edges. It has a thin bill and pale pinkish-yellow legs; the hind claw is notably long, longer than the rest of the hind toe. The call is a weak tsi-tsi.
Habitat: It is migratory over most of its range, wintering in southern Europe, north Africa and southwestern Asia, but is resident in Ireland, Great Britain, and neighbouring areas of western Europe. However, even here, many birds move to the coast or lowlands in winter. It is primarily a species of open habitats, either uncultivated or low-intensity agriculture, such as pasture, bogs, and moorland. In this case I saw the bird in the moorlands of Hermaness, Unst (June, 2013).
The meadow pipit is a small passerine bird which breeds in much of the northern half of Europe and also northwestern Asia, from southeastern Greenland and Iceland east to just east of the Ural Mountains in Russia, and south to central France and Romania; there is also an isolated population in the Caucasus Mountains.
