Well camouflaged

Here’s a bird you’re unlikely to find on a bush block. It’s an Australasian Pipit, formerly known as Richard’s Pipit, an open-country bird you might see even on a heavily-grazed paddock, as this one was between Strath Creek and Flowerdale.

Despite its apparent vulnerability as a bird that feeds, roosts and nests on the ground, it is fairly common and is found throughout most of Australia, as well as New Zealand and New Guinea. Its secret to survival is probably its excellent camouflage and its swiftness in both running and low flight.

It’s not an easy bird to detect, but after straining to spot even one, we eventually realised there were at least five scurrying around, probably after the many small grasshoppers among the grass tufts. The pipit’s pale eyebrow and white edges to its tail are indicators of its presence, and it often perches on rocks or fences, flicking its tail up and down.

Its unobtrusiveness was highlighted when a second bird showed up in a couple of photos that we hadn’t even noticed in the paddock!

At breeding time in spring/early summer we have seen a male pipit displaying in a courtship flight, swooping and rising while repeatedly emitting a drawn-out trill.