Red-throated Pipit Anthus cervinus 紅喉鷚
Category I. Common passage migrant and winter visitor to wet grass, freshwater marsh and fish pond habitats, most numerous in autumn.
IDENTIFICATION
Feb. 2004, John and Jemi Holmes.
14-15 cm. In all plumages has crown to uppertail coverts darkly streaked, lacks a significant primary projection beyond tertials, has a pale or very poorly-marked loral stripe and a relatively small and fine bill with yellowish tone to the lower mandible and cutting edges of the upper mandible. Non-breeding plumage birds have darkly-streaked flanks, chest and sides of throat, paler lines down the side of the mantle, pale tips to median and greater coverts.
Mar. 2016, Michelle and Peter Wong.
Birds moulting into breeding plumage are distinctive as they have a pinkish-brick tone to the pale areas of head and chest and reduced streaking on the chest.
VOCALISATIONS
The flight call is high-pitched, thin and drawn out: ‘tsssst’, or ‘psssp’.
Sometimes obviously lower-pitched calls are uttered.
Rarely, when flushed, a series of calls are uttered.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Occurs in open usually wet grassy habitats, freshwater marsh, wet and, to a lesser extent dry, agricultural areas and fish pond areas; thus, most records are from the northwest New Territories, especially Long Valley. The percentage of occupied 1km squares recorded in the winter atlas surveys of 2001-05 and 2016-19 was 1.4% and 1.1% respectively. There was no apparent change in distribution, as might be expected given its habitat preferences.
OCCURRENCE
Red-throated Pipit is generally present from October to the third week of April (Figure 1), the extreme dates of occurrence being 19 September 1993 and 17 May 1996. Numbers are highest during autumn migration, peaking in the third week of October. The wintering population appears to be stable in December and January, while spring migration occurs from at least the second week of March, peaking in the last week of the month and first week of April. By the third week of the month, it is rare.
The highest autumn count since 1999 is of 96 birds at Kam Tin on 22 October 2005; the highest in spring is 70 at Fung Lok Wai on 6 April 2007 and in winter 40 at Lut Chau on 12 January 2004. The highest count on record is 250 at Mai Po landfill on 17 April 1992, and the highest combined count is of 340 at four sites in the northwest New Territories on 4 April 1996. A decrease in numbers occurring is suggested by these figures and observations of long-term observers.
Figure 1 also indicates that up to the 1990s Red-throated Pipit was most numerous in spring, while since 1999 more have occurred in autumn. Although the charts suggest that there has been an increase in numbers throughout the period of occurrence, this is likely due to increased observer activity generally, and particularly at Long Valley where habitat conditions have become more suitable and frequent surveys have been carried out.
Though Kershaw (1904) referred to Red-throated Pipit as a common winter visitor, there were few subsequent records until the 1950s. Vaughan and Jones (1913) collected a single specimen in the Pearl River delta, while Herklots (1953) regarded it as a rare winter visitor. However, Dove and Goodhart (1955) stated it was a common passage migrant and fairly common winter visitor.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Insectivorous but no details. Forages in freshwater marsh, wet agricultural fields, damper parts of dry agriculture and along both the top and sides of fish pond bunds, often in small loose flocks. When flushed usually calls and flight appears somewhat weak and erratic.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds largely north of the Arctic Circle from Scandinavia across northern Siberia to the Bering Sea and western Alaska and south to Kamchatka; winters in sub-Saharan and northeast Africa, southeast Europe, the Red Sea, south China, Indochina, the Malay Peninsula and north Borneo. In China winters south of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) and is a migrant through much of the country (Alström et al. 2003, Liu and Chen 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.
Figure 1
Figure 1.
Alström, P., K. Mild and B. Zetterström (2003). Pipits and Wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America. Christopher Helm, London.
Dove, R. S. and H. J. Goodhart (1955). Field observations from the Colony of Hong Kong. Ibis 97: 311-340.
Herklots, G.A.C. (1953). Hong Kong Birds. South China Morning Post, Hong Kong.
Kershaw, J. C. (1904). List of birds of the Quangtung Coast, China. Ibis 1904: 235-248.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Vaughan, R. E. and K. H. Jones (1913). The birds of Hong Kong, Macao and the West River or Si Kiang in South-East China, with special reference to their nidification and seasonal movements. Ibis 1913: 17-76, 163-201, 351-384.
