Scientific name: Anthus trivialis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Bird group: Pipits
Field characters. 15 cm. Very similar to Meadow Pipit. Upperparts brown with dark spots and streaks, breast yellow, breast and flanks with black spots, belly white. Head with pale supercilium, pale malar stripe, and black moustachial stripe. Throat white. Tail black with white on outer tail feathers, two narrow whitish wing bars, legs pinkish. Distinguished from Meadow Pipit by stronger facial pattern, often showing inconspicuous darker line around dark and light spotted ear-coverts. Also, breast often more yellow than in Meadow Pipit, leg colour less variable, and general tones in plumage more golden than green. Voice different. Outside breeding season solitary or in flocks; flocks rarely as large as in Meadow Pipit.
Voice. Call a metallic, sometimes slightly vibrating 'tzee' or 'tzzzz'. Song, given in song flight or sometimes from perch, starts like song of Meadow Pipit, but ends with Canary-like trills and slower 'seea seea seea' during parachute-like descending.
Distribution. Rather common summer visitor.
Habitat. In open areas with dense low vegetation, mixed with scattered bushes and trees. Regular on edges of clearings and in young plantations.
Food. Mainly invertebrates, also some seeds. Feeds mainly on the ground.