Tag: Siberian Pipit

Siberian Pipit in the 5MR!

December 25, 2024 / KDL / 0 Comments

Siberian Pipit wondering what it’s doing in Southern California

Siberian Pipit in Southern California

I take a lot of bike rides down the Ballona Creek. It’s just a block from my house, so it’s convenient. And it combines exercise and birding. My bike rides have led to some good finds, too (Bar-tailed Godwit, Mountain Plover, Pacific Golden-Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Sabine’s Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake). Along the creek are some little league ballfields that attract meadowlarks, starlings, sparrows, and pipits in the winter. Whenever I pass, I give them a quick scan to see what’s around.

On a late afternoon bike ride a few days ago, I stopped to scan the ballfields. There were some pipits walking and bobbing. As I looked through them from the bike path, one immediately stood out. It had a really dark triangular malar, black streaking on the chest that formed a necklace, white underparts. The dark streaking extended to the flanks. This was obvious even from distance in poor light with my cheap binoculars. I immediately thought Siberian Pipit. Siberian Pipit was previously considered a subspecies of American Pipit. Recently, it was elevated to its own species. And there were only three previous LA County record in eBird — a single bird (probably) that appeared for 3 straight winters at soccer fields near Griffith Park.

The pipits flushed, but remarkably the darker-streaked bird and a couple other American Pipits stayed still. Tragically, I didn’t have my camera on me. So I hopped the bike-path fence to see if I could get a closer look. The pipits flushed away from me, but stayed in the same field. I took a cell phone picture through my binoculars. It a crappy shot, but it shows the dark malar and suggests the dark streaking. It was not gonna be good enough for an ID though.

My attempt at documentation with only a cell phone and binoculars

Luckily, a regular bird-watcher stopped when he saw me on the other side of the fence and my bike abandoned on the bike path. He had a Canon DSLR with him, and allowed me to snap some photos with it. The light was fading, and I didn’t want to wander with a guy’s camera for long. So I just took a few. He kindly shared the photos with me that night. They confirmed my observations. A dark triangular malar. Dark chest streaking that extended to the flanks. A white throat, chest, and flanks.

Dark Malar

Pinkish leg?

Dark streaking

Comparison shot

But the photos were distant. And they didn’t show the birds’ leg color (pink/red for Siberian Pipit, dark brown for American Pipit). Convinced this was likely a wintering bird, I went back to the fields 5 times over the ensuing days. There were 20-50 American Pipits there each time, but not the darkly-streaked bird. With all that time looking exclusively at American Pipits, I became convinced the bird was outside the spectrum of American Pipits. It was certainly well outside the spectrum of malar and streaking and throat/chest/flank ground color shown by the present American Pipits.

There was a big variety in the extent of streaking, and the darkness of the streaking, on the present American Pipits. Some had dark triangular patches at the malars (though the bulk of the birds did not). But at most, those malars were dark brown. And many were patchy dark triangles that had fuzzy edges. None showed a large black triangle with defined edges like this bird. Some had dark streaks that headed down the chest (though many of the birds did not). None showed a necklace formed by sharpie-thick black streaks headed down the chest like this bird. Some showed streaking that continued along the flanks (though most of the birds did not). But that flank streaking was brown and the streaks were short dashes. None showed extended black multi-level streaking at the flanks like this bird. Some had whiter throats and chests. But all of them showed creamy or buffy coloring somewhere on the sides of the chest and flanks, if not all over it. None had the uniformly white ground of this bird from throat to chest to flanks.

I changed my eBird entry to Siberian Pipit, where I assumed it would remain unconfirmed with better documentation.

A Christmas Return

After 5 visits without seeing the bird, I had basically given up hope that the Siberian Pipit was around. Nevertheless, on Christmas, after I trip to LMU to see a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, I stopped at the ballfields one last time hoping for Christmas magic. I didn’t see any pipits on the first 2 fields I checked. But the third field had some pipits moving around. In my first scan through the flock, one bird immediately jumped out. It had a big black malar, and sharpie-thick black streaking on the chest that extended down the belly and flanks. It’s throat, chest, belly and flanks had a uniformly white ground. The bird I suspected was a Siberian Pipit was back.

Pink legs!

Comparison

I knew I needed to get good looks at the legs. If this bird had pink or reddish-brown legs, that could confirm the Siberian Pipit ID. After spending 10 minutes in tall grass and clover, the bird wandered out into the open. Through my binoculars, the legs looked reddish. But leg color on a single bird can vary significantly depending on the angle of view and lighting. So I made sure to get photos from the front, side, and back. The lack of direct sunlight minimized the chance of deceptive lighting making the legs look reddish. In nearly all my photos, the legs look pinkish or reddish-brown.

I got word out that the Un-American Pipit was back. I shared a back-of-the-camera photo to the nerds on WhatsApp that showed pinkish legs. Happily, a couple birders headed right over. The flock hadn’t flushed, and they got better photos than mine.

I special thank you to Andy Birch, birder and artist extraordinaire. He’s incredibly helpful with tough IDs. His write-up and sketches of the difference between American Pipits and Siberian Pipits shows how tricky this ID can be. Glad he encouraged me to keep looking and get better documentation.

5MR Lifer, and 3 Armchair Ticks

November 13, 2024 / KDL / 0 Comments

Horned Larks at Dockweiler Beach

Horned Lark: 5MR Lifer

Since my first 5MR recap and targets post back in 2020, Horned Lark has been on the list of birds I expected to find in my 5MR. Back then, I identified the Ballona flatlands, and the beach, as spots where I thought Horned Larks could be found. Since then, there was one report in Nov. 2023 in Ballona Area A (of a flyover). And there was another report of 10 flying by the Ballona salt pan in June of this year. I’m sure they’re passing through in small numbers, especially in fall. But they’re rarely spotted. Lately, there seems to be a mini-irruption of Horned Larks in the L.A. Basin, so I was getting my hopes up.

On Halloween, during a late afternoon bike ride down Ballona Creek, I finally added Horned Lark to my 5MR list. I found 2 of them feeding on the little league ballfields between the 90 and Lincoln. It was a spot I’ve checked dozens of times for Horned Lark (and Mountain Plover).It’s got the kind of open area with little vegetation that they like. The pair were walking around and foraging. Given their plumage, I suspect they were juveniles. In breeding plumage, Horned Larks have killer little horns and a sharp black stripe through the eye.

Horned Lark in my 5MR, at long last

During a bike ride along the creek a couple of days later, there were 5 Horned Larks feeding in the same brown ballfield. And then the next day, during a walk at Dockweiler Beach, a little flock of 10 Horned Larks flew past me heading north against a strong wind (picture at top). In a matter of days, Horned Larks had quickly gone from totally elusive to regular sighting in my 5MR. But who knows, it may be years before I see one again in my 5MR.

Three Armchair Ticks

In birding lingo, a “tick” is a new bird species added to a list. It could be a “tick” on your list for a particular walk one morning, or a county “tick” (the first time you’ve seen in a bird in a county), or a lifer “tick.” Since many birders are obsessed with their lists (me included), a lot of birding is focused on producing ticks.

An “armchair tick” is a lazy man’s lifer. It’s a bird species that you add to a particular list without ever leaving your house. One day you don’t have a bird on your life list. Without doing anything, the next day you do. Armchair ticks result from taxonomy changes that turn what once was considered a single species into two or more species. If you happen to have seen the birds that once were considered the same species but are now reclassified as two (or more) species, then the moment the split becomes official, you pick up a new lifer. Through the magic of scientific classification, your life list grows without you doing any birding.

That is very dark streaking

Siberian Pipit

This year, taxomony changes resulted in me picking up 3 armchair ticks when the changes became official. One of those 3 was a single sighting of what is now considered a Siberian Pipit. Our regular wintering pipit here in Los Angeles is called the American Pipit. They’re birds that range widely across the United States and Canada. They prefer grasslands and barren fields. A subspecies of American Pipit (known as anthus japonicus) usually stays on the western side of the Pacific Ocean. The breed and winter in Russia, Japan, Korea, and China. This year, scientists concluded that this subspecies was better considered a species of its own. They gave it the name of Siberian Pipit. They’re distinguishable from American Pipit primarily by their much darker striping on their chests.

Ace L.A. birder Andy Birch found one of these Siberian Pipits on some soccer fields near Griffith Park back in December 2020. Back then, it was considered an American Pipit. The bird came back in December 2021. Aware that there was talk of splitting this subspecies from American Pipit into its own distinct species, I made a trip out there to see the bird. My ebird report included a photo and stated: “I await my armchair tick.” Just about 3 years later, that sighting of American Pipit turned into my first, and only, sighting of a Siberian Pipit.

The second armchair lifer I added from taxonomy changes this year was a bird that was previously considered a subspecies of Brown Booby. I’d seen Brown Booby in Hawaii, and also in San Diego waters. But the birds that live and breed off the coast of California and Mexico are now considered their own species. The new species was called Cocos Booby, after the Cocos tectonic Plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This meant that the Brown Boobies I saw on 2 different boating trips in San Diego county waters are now sightings of Cocos Boobies.

The third armchair tick resulted from a split of House Wren into multiple different species. At the time of the split, 253 of my 254 sightings of House Wren were now considered sightings of the Northern House Wren. One of those 254 house Wren sightings, however, was of a bird that is now considered to be a Southern House Wren. That sighting was in Costa Rica, on the property of the amazing villa we stayed in back in 2018.

That’s how you add 3 bird species to your life list without doing any additional birding.