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Paramo Pipit | Anthus bogotensis
Páramopieper | Bisbita de páramo | Caminheiro-do-páramo
The Paramo Pipit is the pipit of the high mountains of the northern and central Andes, from Colombia to Bolivia. It is sturdier and plainer buff than the other Andean pipits, with few streaks on the breast. Especially in the breeding season the male makes itself heard in a song flight over grassy slopes.
Voice
The song, usually in a song flight, is a series of high, thin notes running into a buzzy tseeee-zzzz. It also sings from a rock or tussock. The call is a short tsit.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
15–16 cm, fairly sturdy, with a thin bill. The upperparts are buffy brown with dark streaks, finer on the crown. The underparts are plain warm buff, with only a few fine dark streaks or spots on the breast and unstreaked flanks. The outer tail feathers are pale buff to whitish. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Correndera Pipit Anthus correndera has pale stripes on the back and a heavily streaked breast and flanks. Puna Pipit Anthus brevirostris is smaller and more compact, with a short bill and a densely streaked breast band. Hellmayr's Pipit Anthus hellmayri is slimmer and more finely streaked, and usually lives lower. In Colombia the Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris of the Bogotá savanna can look similar at a distance, but it has a black and yellow face pattern.
Habitat
Grassy slopes and flats in páramo, jalca and puna, often with rocks and scattered shrubs, also in grazed mountain pasture, at about 2500 to 4300 m, higher in the south. It searches the ground for insects. The nest is on the ground, hidden in a tussock or under a rock.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Central and Eastern Andes and locally in the Western Andes. In Ecuador throughout the Andes. In Peru along the entire length of the Andes. In Bolivia in the Andes from north to south. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in the Andes of Venezuela and north-western Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search grassy slopes in páramo or puna, for example along roads over high passes. A flushed bird usually lands again quickly; listen for the song of males high overhead.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common in suitable habitat; fires and overgrazing can degrade the grassland locally, but the species tolerates grazing well.
Scientific name
Anthus bogotensis | Sclater, 1855
Sclater described the species in 1855 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Anthus was introduced in 1805 by Bechstein. The genus name is Latin anthus, a small bird of grasslands mentioned by Pliny the Elder. The species name refers to Bogotá in Colombia. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.