Water Pipit

The water pipit is a small passerine that breeds in the mountains of southern Europe and the Palearctic eastwards to China. In breeding plumage it has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly, with a grey head, a broad white eyebrow and white outer tail feathers. In non-breeding plumage the head is grey-brown and the eyebrow less distinct. There are only minor differences among the three subspecies, and young birds resemble adults. The subspecies blakistoni winters in Pakistan, north-west India and southern China (Wikipedia, general species account).

The nest is a cup on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices, with four to six speckled greyish-white eggs laid from the end of April to early July, hatching in about two weeks, with a further 14–15 days to fledging. The song, from a perch or in flight, consists of four or five blocks, each of about six repetitions of a different short note. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of open habitat that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).