water pipit

Vagrant birds in winter are easily distinguished from Water Pipits but impossible to assign to subspecies by appearance and measurements.

Eurasian Rock Pipits tend to be found along rocky coasts, whereas Water Pipits favour damp grassland.

Dr. Rolando and his team studied populations of water pipits, black redstarts and other birds in and around high-altitude ski trails in northern Italy, including some built for the 2006 Turin Olympics.

They can differentiated by their vocalizations and some visual cues, but Rock and Buff-bellied Pipit are not found sympatrically except as vagrant individuals, and the ranges of Buff-bellied and Water Pipits overlap only in a small area in Central Asia.