New Page 1

The following table only outlines the features useful in the separation of spinoletta and littoralis in non-breeding plumage.

	SPINOLETTA	LITTORALIS
HEAD	brown to grey/brown often paler and greyer than mantle, supercilium quite variable though more often distinct and whitish, dark malar stripe often not reaching to the base of the bill, eyering above the eye not conspicuous due to whiteness of supercilium	distinctly greenish tinged and concolourous with mantle and more often distinctly streaked, supercilium often distinct but not as clearly marked or extensive as spinoletta, eyering often conspicuous above the eye
UPPERPARTS	usually warmer brown especially on the back, rump and upper-tail coverts often contrastingly so with the less warm brown mantle, mantle slightly less obviously streaked	usually distinctly greenish tinged especially on the back, rump and upper-tail coverts, more obvious darker streaking on mantle
UNDERPARTS	base colour whitish (including the belly and under-tail coverts), breast and flanks distinctly streaked darker but streaks with sharper edges and never as messy as Rock Pipit especially on rear flanks, streaking density and size variable but most often much less heavily streaked and 'pencil thin'	base colour often more 'dirty' yellowish, consistently on the belly and under-tail coverts, throat especially can appear paler, more whitish, streaking larger and more diffuse especially on the rear flanks where they can become quite 'messy' and the base colour is more brownish/grey, often with a hint of warmth
WINGS	edges to remiges usually browner, light-fawn to whitish, two distinct whitish wing bars formed by pale tips to the greater and median coverts	edges to remiges have a distinctly olive tone, especially on the tertials and primaries, wing bars often pale but rarely as distinct as spinoletta
TAIL	outer web to outer-tail feathers (T6) clearly and always white, inner webs with a clear cut, obvious large whitish wedge, T5 (second outer-most tail feathers) often have a small but obvious whitish wedge on the outer web and a fairly deep whitish wedge on the inner web	outer webs of T6 pale greyish/white, certainly appearing whitish in the field (especially towards the feather tip), inner webs appear less white and conspicuous, T5 with usually only a small dusky looking tip, never a deep pale wedge on the inner webs as in spinoletta
CALL (relevant for all times of year)	to the experienced ear sounds slightly different from Rock Pipit and is in-between the latter and Meadow Pipit, slightly thinner, shorter and less harsh than Rock	differences to spinoletta very subtle but harsher, more shrill
BEHAVIOUR (relevant for all times of year and at least for birds encountered in a county context)	usually very shy, flushing easily and at distance then circling round (usually then flying off behind the observer) 'dropping in' some distance away, often alights in bushes	less shy (some relatively tame), more prone to walk away or when flushed, fly directly away, alighting further along

Above: Water Pipit (spinoletta), Getteron, Halland, Sweden (Stephan Johansson). The mantle is clearly warm brownish although on this individual the head is becoming markedly greyer (and thus contrasting with the mantle), note also the very pale, whitish underparts, importantly including rear flanks and underpart streaking that is not only 'sparser' than that of Rock Pipit but is clearly smaller, narrower and more clearly defined. The malar stripe is poorly defined here and partially broken.

Above: Water Pipit (spinoletta, same individual as immediately above), Getteron, Halland, Sweden (Stephan Johansson). The brownness of the upperparts is obvious here as is the contrast to the greyish head.

Above: Water Pipit (spinoletta, left) and Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis, right), Getteron, Halland, Sweden (Stephan Johansson). The underpart streaking of this individual is fairly classic, although the apparent diffuseness on the flanks is more due to the 'fluffing out' of the feathers. This aside, the streaks are clearly defined and the belly is reasonably unstreaked, also note how brown the upperparts are and compare them to those of the Meadow Pipit. In this individual the malar stripe is again typically poorly marked and does not reach the base of the bill.

Above: Water Pipit (spinoletta, same individual as Fig.), Getteron, Halland, Sweden (Stephan Johansson). Note how the rump is obviously warm brown and on this individual at least, concolourous with the rest of the upperparts, which are also rather inconspicuously streaked.

Above: Water Pipit (spinoletta), Getteron, Halland, Sweden (Stephan Johansson). An interesting bird due to the leucism across the forehead (also present on the rear of the crown) and throat. The underpart streaking however is typical, with very fine and well defined flank streaks against a very pale, whitish ground colour across the entire underparts.

Above: Water Pipit (spinoletta), Queen Mother Reservoir, London, 23.10.03 (Jerry O'Brian). Rather warm brown, apparently unstreaked upperparts, bold supercilium, two fairly obvious white wing bars, whitish underparts with rather sparse, fine, well defined streaks, and a poorly marked malar stripe, all in all an absolute classic example of a non-breeding plumaged Water Pipit.

Above: 'Eastern' Water Pipit (coutelli), Bahrain (Adrian John Drummond-Hill). Whilst subtle differences exist between the sub species coutelli and spinoletta Water Pipits (not featured within the scope of this article), this bird still exhibits classic features existing in both, particularly here the fine and defined underpart streaking and large white supercilium, note also this bird has already dropped a couple of tertials leaving only the longest present.

Above: Non-breeding plumaged Water Pipits (spinoletta). Notice the very pale, whitish ground colour of the underparts and the restricted, rather fine, distinct and sharply edged streaking on the breast, with fine, 'pencil streaking' on the flanks. The outer-tail feathers (P6) shows a large and conspicuous area of white, especially on the inner webs. (Ian McKerchar)

Above: Non-breeding plumaged Water Pipits (left two, spinoletta) and Rock Pipits (right two, littoralis/petrosus). The difference in the shape, clarity and distribution of streaking on the underparts between the Water and Rock Pipits is immediately obvious, whilst the ground colour to the underparts of the Water Pipits are clearly paler and the white. Note again the large and conspicuous white wedges on the inner webs of the outer-tail feathers on the Water Pipits . (Ian McKerchar)

Above: Non-breeding plumaged Water Pipit (left, spinoletta) and Rock Pipit (right, petrosus). The much warmer brown upperparts, including very importantly the back, rump and upper-tail coverts on the Water Pipit are obvious, whilst this Rock Pipit's (a specimen from St.Kilda) are rather greyish/olive with quite large and distinct streaking. Note the quite buffish outer-tail feathers on this particular Rock Pipit. (Ian McKerchar)

Above: Water Pipit (left, spinoletta) and Scandinavian Rock Pipit (right, littoralis). The outer-tail feather (P6) of the spinoletta appears white on both webs and the second-to-outer feather (P5) displays the large and characteristic clear white 'wedge' on the inner web and a small whitish tip to the outer web but to be fair, P6 on the littoralis also appears similarly as white (albeit with a slightly more greyish-white outer web) but T5 typically has an all brownish tip to the outer web and very little paler wedge on the inner web. In the field though, on a live bird jumping and hopping about, could you differentiate them with sufficient certainty? (Ian McKerchar)