American Pipit
Learn to identify the American Pipit by ear. Master the "tsee-tsee-tsee, sip-sip-sip" phrase and tell it apart from similar species.
What the American Pipit sounds like
Given by breeding males in fluttering song flight over tundra. It sounds light, sweet, and tinkly, like tiny notes spilling from the sky.
How to tell it apart
Where you'll hear it
American Pipits breed far north and high up in open tundra and mountain meadows. They winter across the southern U.S., along coasts, and into Mexico, often showing up in loose flocks.
Breeds on alpine tundra and Arctic barrens. In migration and winter, look for it in open country—beaches, mudflats, plowed fields, grazed pastures, and airport grasslands.
Most birders notice them in migration, when flocks sweep overhead giving sharp calls or spread across wet fields and shorelines. In summer they nest in stark, treeless country; in winter they stick to open ground and keep on walking.
How to recognize it by sight
A slim, earthy little songbird that walks briskly across mudflats, shorelines, and short grass, almost always bobbing its tail. Up close it looks neatly streaked and understated, but when it flies, bright white outer tail feathers flash like tiny signals.