The Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis) is often found in open woodlands and heathlands across Europe and Asia.
Learn how to identify this small, migratory songbird known for its distinctive, soaring flight display and melodious song with our expert bird guide
What does a tree pipit look like?
Tree pipits are small, unassuming brown birds with streaked backs and pale underparts.
What’s the difference between a tree pipit and meadow pipit?
The tree pipit is extremely similar to the meadow pipit, but as it’s just a summer visitor, you can be confident it’s a meadow pipit between the months of September and mid-March.
Other features separating tree from meadow include a larger bill, spots turning to stripes as you go down the breast to the belly, and more obvious head markings.
It generally perches much more than the meadow pipit and, believe it or not, has a shorter hind claw which you can clearly see. You often find pipit photos posted on social media, to which people respond with benevolent pedantry: “It’s a tree pipit because of its short hind claw.”
It's common for long-distance migrants to have longer wings than their less well travelled relatives, and this is the case of tree pipit, too. Meadow pipits make less substantial movements than tree pipits, just hopping across the Channel or moving within Britain.
Tree pipit habitat and distribution
A common summer visitor, the tree pipit can be spotting during April to August. However, this is a tricky bird to identify. The habitat helps, though. Tree pipits are birds of heathland, young conifer plantations and felled areas, and they are always around tree and bushes, not normally out in very open places with little cover.
What do tree pipits eat?
Tree Pipits primarily eat insects, particularly during the breeding season. Their diet includes beetles, caterpillars, ants, and other small invertebrates.
In the autumn and winter, they also consume seeds and berries to supplement their diet.
What does the tree pipit call sound like?
Once arrived it embarks on a very classy display with a much better song than the meadow pipit.
While the meadow pipit lifts from the ground or a very low perch, the tree pipit sets off from the top of a tree, begins its song with a strong, well-structured phrase (that starts like that of a chaffinch), reaches its desired height and then parachutes down back to a raised perch (see above).
Where do tree pipits nest?
The nest is on the ground and, typically for terrestrial nesters, the young often leave before they can fly properly. Impressively for a summer visitor, it sometimes squeezes two or even three broods into a season.
What’s the tree pipit population?
105,000 pairs.
What’s their conservation status?
Red List of Conservation Concern. Stable but contraction in range.
Want to find out more about our feathered friends?
Check out our expert guides to rock pipits, garden birds, robins, blackbirds, tit species and British finches, as well as how to make a log bird feeder.
