Richard's Pipit

Richard's pipit is a large, slender pipit, 17–20cm long with a wingspan of 29–33cm and a weight of 25–36g, that often stands very upright. It has long yellow-brown legs with a long, fairly straight hind claw, a long tail with white outer feathers and a long dark bill with a yellowish base. It is brown above and pale below, streaked dark on the back and breast, with a strongly marked face of pale lores and eyebrow and dark eye, moustache and malar stripes, and two pale wing bars (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in open grassland in the East Palearctic and is a long-distance migrant, wintering on open lowlands in the Indian subcontinent and South-east Asia; it is a rare but regular vagrant to western Europe. It was once lumped with several other large pipits, including the paddyfield pipit. It is named after the French naturalist Charles Richard. In India it is a winter migrant with a moderate range; SoIB 2023 has too little data for a trend and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).