Alpine pipit

The Alpine Pipet is a medium sized bird that lives in the Alpine Grasslands. It has a light brown back and wings with tan colored tips to its back feathers. Its chest is a strong tan color, matching the color of its similar tan tips of its back feathers and wings. The Pipit has a smaller pointed beak that is fairly skinny. Directly under the tail, the bird has medium length red legs attached to long-toed pronged feet. The Pipet also has three long tail feathers that extend about two inches off the back of its body.[2]

Alpine Pipet often sing when they are in flight right above the ground. The Alpine Pipet’s song sounds like “tsee tsee'' repeatedly. It is a high pitched very quick noise. The Pipit does this many times for a long period of time, making a high pitched bird song.[3]

Bird song recording: https://xeno-canto.org/105021

Alpine Pipits mostly eat small insects and their larvae. Alpine Pipet also eat arthropods, grass seeds, berries and green herbaceous matter. Alpine Pipet forage on the ground, by waddling, and sometimes forage in groups. Alpine Pipet will fly up to rocks, bushes, or trees on the forest’s edges when they are threatened. Alpine Pipet will also hold their bill at a 45-degree angle towards the sky while scavenging. [4]

The Alpine Pipit is native to Indonesia: Papua New Guinea. It lives in alpine grassland at the highest part of the mountain ranges in Papua New Guinea. These mountains are from 3200m to 4500m high, and sometimes the Alpine Pipit will go down to mountains 2500 m high. The Alpine Pipet is often found near shrubs and short grass..[5] The system it lives in is Terrestrial, and its habitat type is Grassland. [6]

The Globally Threatened ranking is under the “Least Concern” category. The species is very restricted to West Papua, but this does not seem to effect the population, as the population trend is very stable.[7]

Alpine Pipet breed in the wet season during the months, April, September, and October. Their single nestlings have been found during this time, and they are made up of fine grass and located on a steep bank. Alpine Pipets do not migrate for breeding since they stay in the same locations all year round.[8]