From the recordings I've listened to it sounded exactly like the Red-tailed
Pipit in tone and pitch. It dipped at the end in the same way and gave the
exact same flight call three times that I heard very clearly. Others heard
it for longer than I did. We did play the Red-throated Pipit flight call
right after hearing it. It seems to me that if we had recorded the bird we
heard, we could swap it out with the Red-throated Pipit calls on xeno canto
without anyone noticing.
From what I listened to, the Olive-backed Pipit has a much buzzier quality
to it than the pure and sweet sounding Red-throated Pipits. Is that always
the case? I have no experience with either species.
In any case, I never saw the bird so the only way I could ID it is if that
flight call is diagnostic. If something else could mimic the descending
sweet high pitched call then it could as easily be that.
On Wednesday, November 11, 2015, Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I was once near a RT Pipit that was giving the "seeee" call while perched
on a rock. The call differed a bit if the bird was facing toward us or away
at an angle.
Alan Contreras
Eugene, Oregon
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx');>
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 11, 2015, at 6:06 PM, Shawneen Finnegan <shawneenfinnegan@xxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','shawneenfinnegan@xxxxxxxxx');>> wrote:
The closest one I know is Olive-backed Pipit. One can compare flight calls
on the links below. Red-throated is certainly distinctive and the expected
vagrant pipit to be found on the West Coast. But there are records of
Olive-backed in California and Nevada. I have heard both and have confused
them.
Red-throated Pipit: http://www.xeno-canto.org/283751
Olive-backed Pipit: http://www.xeno-canto.org/285782
There are recordings of both that sound a bit thinner — am not sure if it
is because the birds have a thinner call or if is due to being more distant
when recorded.
Shawneen Finnegan
Portland, OR
