Pechora Pipit:

first photographs from Mongolia

text & photos by Purevsuren Tsolmonjav

Pechora Pipit

Galba Gobi IBA, S Mongolia, 9 Sep 2014

On 9 September 2014 I was driving to the Galba Gobi IBA (PDF here) from the Oyu Tolgoi mine site to carry out some field work. On the way, I stopped at a small pond which is on the dry river bed of the Undai near Javkhlant Village in Khanbogd Soum, Umnugobi (South Gobi) Province. The pond is surrounded by some old Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila trees. Quite often birds come here for drinking and I intended to check what was around. I saw and photographed a migrating Eurasian Teal and a few Grey Wagtails. Suddenly, a single small pipit Anthus landed on shore of the pond to drink. I took several photos and identified it as Tree Pipit. Later, I checked my photographs and compared them with images of Tree Pipit I found on the internet. But the dark and white stripes on mantle were wrong for this species. Then, I checked the Red List of Mongolian Birds to see which other similar pipits we have in Mongolia. After having done that, Pechora Pipit seemed to be the most likely candidate and I checked online images of this species and thought that it indeed could be Pechora Pipit. In October 2014 I went for a birding trip with Abu of Birding Mongolia and the members of Mongolian Bird Watching Club. I told Abu that I might have seen Pechora Pipit in the Gobi but that I wasn’t sure. He agreed to check my pictures later and I sent him some of them. Abu immediately confirmed it is a Pechora Pipit. The Pechora Pipit was there by itself and it came down to water from the elm trees nearby. After drinking for about a minute it flew back into the trees. Then, I had to leave that place and continued my journey.

Puujee


Comment by Birding Mongolia

Traditionally three subspecies of Pechora Pipit are recognized: nominate gustavi, stejnegeri and menzbieri. They are all superficially similar and can probably not safely be separated in the field except by voice (although there hints that gustavi and menzbieri are in fact possibly separable in the field: see Moores 2004). Furthermore, it seems possible that the vocal differences are big enough to warrant specific status for menzbieri (see, for example, Drovetski & Fadeev 2010). “Menzbier’s Pipit” menzbieri breeds in the Russian Far East (middle Amur Valley, southern Ussuriland, over 500 km east of eastern Mongolia) and extreme north-eastern China (eastern Heilongjiang); its wintering area is unknown. Nominate gustavi (in which stejnegeri of the Commander Islands is sometimes included) breeds in northern Russia from north-west of the Urals (west of the Pechora River) east to the Chukotsk Peninsula, south to the middle Yenisey River, middle Lena and Kamchatka; it migrates to the Philippines, northern Borneo and to Wallacea. So both could conceivably turn up in Mongolia as migrants, although an occurrence of menzbieri seems much less likely. There have been several reports of Pechora Pipit from Mongolia before, though none has been validated (to our knowledge) by photographs, sound recordings or by collected specimen. Furthermore, some published records, for example of birds flying up and perching on telephone wires, seem very unlikely given the typical skulking behaviour of the species. If you have any information on the occurrence of Pechora Pipit from Mongolia we would be grateful to hear from you!

The pictures presented here are, to our knowledge, the first of this species Mongolia! Well done, Puujee!

Pechora Pipit

Galba Gobi IBA, southern Mongolia, 9 Sep 2014

Pechora Pipit

Galba Gobi IBA, S Mongolia, 9 Sep 2014

Pechora Pipit

Galba Gobi IBA, S Mongolia, 9 Sep 2014

Pechora Pipit

Galba Gobi IBA, S Mongolia, 9 Sep 2014

ID note by Abu: Pechora Pipit is not so difficult to identify but due to its very skulking behavior the biggest challenge is to find one. It belongs to the smaller pipits and the most striking features are the two off-white tramlines running down its back and the bold white wingbar, created by the broad white tips of the black median wing coverts. The only real confusion species is Red-throated Pipit Anthus cervinus with which it shares not only the tramlines (although weaker in Red-throated Pipit) but also the full streaks on the flanks. Apart from the different call, Red-throated Pipit differs in a thinner bill and the total lack of primary projection. In Pechora Pipit the primaries are exposed because of the short tertials.


References

Drovetski & Fadeev 2010. Mitochondrial DNA suggests independent evolutionary history and population decline of the Menzbir’s pipit (Anthus [gustavi] menzbieri). Conservation Genetics 11(6): 2419-2423. abstract link

Moores, N. 2004. Pechora Pipit Anthus gustavi in South Korea: some pieces in the menzbieri / gustavi puzzle? Birds Korea: article link