American Pipit

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens) is a slender brown songbird with pale underparts, fine streaking and white outer tail feathers visible in flight. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in Arctic and alpine country in North America and eastern Asia, moving to open lowlands and coasts for winter and feeding on insects and seeds while walking on the ground. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).