European Rock Pipit

The plumage of the European Rock Pipit is remarkably mimetic on the seaweed, the predominant vegetation on the bird's biotope: Its brown colors are tinged with olive green, on its back and wings as well as on the dense streaks of its breast. Its beige is less pale than in other pipits, including the Meadow Pipit, to which the European Rock Pipit was for a long time considered as a subspecies. The well-visible eye ring, as well as the light areas of the supercilium, the outer rectrices, and the alar bars are common features with the Meadow Pipit. However, these areas are lighter in the latter in winter, the only period during which the two species can be found together on the coast.