Blyth's Pipit

Blyth's pipit is a large pipit but an undistinguished one on the ground, mainly brown above and pale below. It is very like Richard's pipit but slightly smaller, with shorter legs and a shorter dark bill. Its flight is strong and direct, and its characteristic call is a pshee, higher-pitched than Richard's. It is named after the zoologist Edward Blyth, and its species name commemorates Victor Godlewski (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in Mongolia and neighbouring parts of China and Tibet and is a long-distance migrant, wintering on open lowlands in southern Asia, where it has to be told carefully from other large pipits. It is insectivorous. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe (Wikipedia, general species account).