Water pipit
Anthus spinoletta (Linnaeus, 1758)
The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a bird in the family Motacillidae, part of the songbirds and other perching birds in the order Passeriformes. It is a small bird with an adult body mass of 23.9 g and a wingspan of 26 cm.
Quick facts about the water pipit
The water pipit is a migratory, terrestrial invertivore of grassland habitats, with a geographic range of 3,806,000 km². It lays 4.6 eggs per clutch with 1.5 clutches per year, and it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 20.1 g – 23.9 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 26 cmsrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 8.82 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 8.92 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- grasslandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 14.4 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 4.6src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 11.9 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1.5src for Litters or clutches a year
- Reproduction
- Eggssrc for Reproduction
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Migratorysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the water pipit?
Photos of the water pipit
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the water pipit live?
Not recorded
What is the water pipit?
The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of Southern Europe and the Palearctic eastwards to China. It is a short-distance migrant; many birds move to lower altitudes or wet open lowlands in winter.
The water pipit in breeding plumage has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. The head is grey with a broad white supercilium ("eyebrow"), and the outer tail feathers are white. In winter, the head is grey-brown, the supercilium is duller, the upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, streaked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks. There are only minor differences among the three subspecies, the sexes are almost identical, and young birds resemble adults. The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about six repetitions of a different short note.
Water pipits construct a cup-like nest on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled grey-ish white eggs, which hatch in about two weeks with a further 14–15 days to fledging. Although pipits occasionally catch insects in flight, they feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the ground or vegetation, and also some plant material.
The water pipit may be hunted by birds of prey, infested by parasites such as fleas, or act as an involuntary host to the common cuckoo, but overall its population is large and stable, and it is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
From the Wikipedia article “Water pipit” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Water_pipit&oldid=1365335346), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the water pipit endangered?
The water pipit is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the water pipit classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyMotacillidae
- genusAnthus
- SpeciesAnthus spinoletta (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Alauda migratoria, Alauda spinoletta, Anthus aquaticus, Anthus petrosus meinertzhageni, Anthus petrosus subsp. spinoletta, Anthus spinoletta meinertzhageni, Pipastes spinoletta
Other names and names in other languages (75)
- Rock pipit and water pipitEnglish
- جشنة الماءArabic
- أبو فصية الماءArabic
- Cistrilla chicotaAragonese
- chis de los puertosAsturian
- Горны свірстунBelarusian
- Водна бъбрицаBulgarian
- Планинска бъбрицаBulgarian
- Sidan-dourBreton
- grasset de muntanyaCatalan
- linduška horskáCzech
- Corhedydd y DwrWelsh
- Corhedydd y dŵrWelsh
- Corhedyddion y DwrWelsh
- BjergpiberDanish
- BergpieperGerman
- WasserpieperGerman
- ΝεροκελάδαGreek
- Ευρωπαϊκή ΝεροκελάδαGreek
- AkvopipioEsperanto
- akva pipioEsperanto
- Bisbita alpinoSpanish
- Bisbita Ribereño AlpinoSpanish
- mägikiurEstonian
- Mendi-txirtaBasque
- پیپت تالابیPersian
- vuorikirvinenFinnish
- Pipit spioncelleFrench
- Pipit spioncelle montagnardFrench
- Riabhóg uisceIrish
- Pica alpinaGalician
- Tweet ushteyManx
- פפיון מיםHebrew
- פיפיון מיםHebrew
- havasi pityerHungarian
- Լեռնային ձիաթռչնակArmenian
- FjalltittlingurIcelandic
- SpioncelloItalian
- タヒバリJapanese
- ヒガシヨーロッパタヒバリJapanese
- КъуршкъуацэщӀэжKabardian
- Тау жадырағыKazakh
- 옅은밭종다리Korean
- WaasserpiipsertLuxembourgish
- vandeninis kalviukasLithuanian
- ūdeņu čipsteLatvian
- Карпеста треперкаMacedonian
- карпеста трепетилкаMacedonian
- Усны шийхнүүхэйMongolian
- जल चुइयाँNepali
- WaterpieperDutch
- vasspiplerkeNorwegian Nynorsk
- vannpiplerkeNorwegian
- siwerniakPolish
- petinha-ribeirinhaPortuguese
- Fâsă de munteRomanian
- Горный конёкRussian
- Береговой конёкRussian
- Водяный коникRusyn
- VárrecivkkánNorthern Sami
- ľabtuška vrchovskáSlovak
- ľabťuška vrchovskáSlovak
- vriskaricaSlovenian
- obvodna cipaSlovenian
- Planinska trepteljkaSerbian
- Планинска трептељкаSerbian
- vattenpiplärkaSwedish
- İncirkuşuTurkish
- Dağ incirkuşuTurkish
- щеврик гірськийUkrainian
- SpionzèlVenetian
- Sẻ đồng nướcVietnamese
- 水鷚Chinese
- 水鷚〔小水鷚，褐色鷚〕Chinese
- 水鹨Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataIUCN Red List
Relatives of the water pipit
Other species in the same genus Anthus.
Tree pipit
Anthus trivialis
Meadow pipit
Anthus pratensis
Tawny pipit
Anthus campestris
Red-throated pipit
Anthus cervinus
Richard's pipit
Anthus richardi
European rock pipit
Anthus petrosus
CompareWater pipit vs Tree pipitWater pipit vs Meadow pipitWater pipit vs Tawny pipitWater pipit vs Red-throated pipit
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
How big is the water pipit?
The water pipit is a small bird with an adult body mass of 23.9 g and a wingspan of 26 cm.
What does the water pipit eat?
The water pipit is an invertivore, and its trophic level is carnivore.
What habitat does the water pipit live in?
The water pipit lives in grassland and forages on the ground as a terrestrial bird. It is migratory.
Is the water pipit endangered?
No. The water pipit is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does the water pipit live?
The water pipit has a lifespan of 8.8 years, with a highest reported value of 8.9 years.
How many eggs does the water pipit lay?
The water pipit lays 4.6 eggs per clutch, with 1.5 clutches per year and an incubation period of 14.4 days.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Water pipit (Anthus spinoletta). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/water-pipit
“Water pipit (Anthus spinoletta).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/water-pipit.
@misc{water_pipit_2026,
title = {Water pipit (Anthus spinoletta)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/water-pipit},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}