Sprague's Pipit (Anthus spragueii)

About the Sprague's Pipit

Sprague's pipit (Anthus spragueii) is a small songbird (passerine) in the family Motacillidae that breeds in the short- and mixed-grass prairies of North America. Migratory, it spends the winters in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Sprague's pipits are unusual among songbirds in that they sing high in the sky, somewhat like a goldfinch or skylark. It is more often identified by its distinctive descending song heard from above than by being seen on the ground. Males and females are cryptically coloured and similar in appearance; they are a buffy brown with darker streaking, slender bills and pinkish to yellow legs. Sprague's pipit summer habitat is primarily native grasslands in the north central prairies of the United States and Canada (distinguishing them from the American subspecies of the buff-bellied pipit, which breed in the northern Rocky Mountains and the Arctic). The species was named after the botanical illustrator Isaac Sprague.