South Georgia Pipit

• It is the only songbird of the Antarctic and the only passerine of South Georgia, as well as one of the very few non-marine birds of the whole region.
• It feeds on small insects, spiders and debris from the shore.
• It was chosen as the emblem bird of the South Georgia Heritage Trust habitat restoration project, which began eradicating rats in 2011; the baiting phase finished in early 2015 and success was confirmed in 2018.
• It is the only passerine in Antarctica and the southernmost breeding songbird of the more than 6,500 passerine species. It came close to disappearing because of the rats brought by whalers and sealers; the eradication, begun in 2011 and confirmed in 2018, has allowed it to recolonise the beaches of South Georgia.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

The South Georgia archipelago, off the Antarctic Peninsula. It builds its nest from dry grass, usually inside tussocks of tussac grass (Poa flabellata)

Gestation / incubation

11-14 days of incubation, sometimes one or two more

Litter / clutch size

Four eggs a year

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List 2021 (BirdLife International, e.T22718588A183206258); BirdLife DataZone 2024; Birds of the World (Tyler y Boland 2025, Cornell Lab); Animalia.bio; South Georgia Heritage Trust; Cabanis 1884, Journal für Ornithologie 32

Best time: All year round; it can be seen on Prion Island and on almost any beach in South Georgia since the rat eradication took effect