Anthus gutturalis

General description: 

Large pipit with strong facial pattern. Nominate race has dark brown lores, contrasting creamy supercilium and lower eyelid (giving spectacled appearance), brown ear-coverts; forehead whitish, crown, head side and upperparts blackish-brown, buff olive-brown feather edgings giving streaked appearance, rump plainer olive-brown to buff; wing feathers dark brown, edged buffish olive-brown; tail dark brown, edged grey, T5 tipped white, T6 brownish-white to buff; throat to upper breast white to pale buff, rest of underparts buff or pale brown, blackish-brown stripe or patch on side of throat and lower neck; iris dark brown; bill lack; legs dark horn or pinkish. Sexes alike. Juvenile has blackish-brown streaks below. Race rhododendri is slightly smaller than nominate, and has greener upperparts and darker underparts; wollastoni has somewhat brighter plumage, but black at side of throat reduced to broken streaks of absent.

Conservation status: 

Not Threatened

Diagnostic description: 

Large pipit with strong facial pattern. Nominate race has dark brown lores, contrasting creamy supercilium and lower eyelid (giving spectacled appearance), brown ear-coverts; forehead whitish, crown, head side and upperparts blackish-brown, buff olive-brown feather edgings giving streaked appearance, rump plainer olive-brown to buff; wing feathers dark brown, edged buffish olive-brown; tail dark brown, edged grey, T5 tipped white, T6 brownish-white to buff; throat to upper breast white to pale buff, rest of underparts buff or pale brown, blackish-brown stripe or patch on side of throat and lower neck; iris dark brown; bill lack; legs dark horn or pinkish. Sexes alike. Juvenile has blackish-brown streaks below. Race rhododendri is slightly smaller than nominate, and has greener upperparts and darker underparts; wollastoni has somewhat brighter plumage, but black at side of throat reduced to broken streaks of absent.

Size: 

17.5 – 18 cm

Phylogeny: 

Taxonomy: Anthus gutturalis De Vis, 1894, Mount Maneao, south-east New Guinea. Three subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)

Distribution: 

Subspecies and Distribution:

    * wollastoni wollastoni Ogilvie-Grant, 1913 - WC New Guinea. * rhododendri Mayr, 1931 - EC New Guinea (in C highlands and Huon Peninsula). * gutturalis De Vis, 1894 - SE New Guinea.
Habitat: 

Alpine grassland above the tree-line on the highest mountains, between 3200 m and 4500m, occasionally down to 2500 m. Prefers short grass, often near cover of shrubs.

Trophic strategy: 

Mainly small insects and their larvae, and other arthropods; grass seeds, berries and green herbaceous matter also recorded. Forages on the ground, moving with a "waddling" gait. Sometimes up to ten individuals together. When alarmed, flies to a vantage point such as rock, bush or tree, up to 12 m away, at forest edge. Frequently holds the bill upwards at 45-degree angle

Reproduction: 

Single nestling found in latter part of wet season, in Apr, Sept and Oct. Nest a cup of fine grass, placed on steep bank. No other information.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith