Water Pipit
Anthus spinoletta (Linnaeus, 1758)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of Southern Europe and the Palearctic eastwards to China. It is a short-distance migrant; many birds move to lower altitudes or wet open lowlands in winter. The water pipit in breeding plumage has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. The head is grey with a broad white supercilium ("eyebrow"), and the outer tail feathers are white. In winter, the head is grey-brown, the supercilium is duller, the upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, streaked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks. There are only minor differences among the three subspecies, the sexes are almost identical, and young birds resemble adults. The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about six repetitions of a different short note.
Wikipedia contributors, Water pipit; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:18:38.682628+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Anthus spinoletta (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Common name
- Water Pipit
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Motacillidae
- Genus
- Anthus
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyMotacillidae Horsfield, 1821
- genusAnthus Bechstein, 1805
- speciesAnthus spinoletta (Linnaeus, 1758)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Anthus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Correndera PipitAnthus correndera Vieillot, 1818 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Yellow-breasted PipitAnthus chloris Lichtenstein, 1842 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Hellmayr's PipitAnthus hellmayri Hartert, 1909 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Short-billed PipitAnthus furcatus Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Mountain PipitAnthus hoeschi Stresemann, 1938 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Red-throated PipitAnthus cervinus (Pallas, 1811) | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Berthelot's PipitAnthus berthelotii Bolle, 1862 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Nilgiri PipitAnthus nilghiriensis Sharpe, 1885 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rosy PipitAnthus roseatus Blyth, 1847 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Paddyfield PipitAnthus rufulus Vieillot, 1818 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| African Rock PipitAnthus crenatus Finsch & Hartlaub, 1870 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Olive Tree-PipitAnthus hodgsoni Richmond, 1907 | MotacillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=178489 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:5VKDZ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.