It is endemic to the Canaries and Madeira: it lives nowhere else in the world.
From Berthelot's Pipit
Its Spanish name refers to its habit of moving along tracks and paths, where it is very easy to see despite its unobtrusive plumage.
From Berthelot's Pipit
It was described in 1862 by the German naturalist Carl Bolle, who dedicated it to Sabin Berthelot, the French naturalist settled on Tenerife and co-author of the Histoire Naturelle des Îles Canaries.
From Berthelot's Pipit
It makes a very marked altitudinal migration: it breeds high in the mountains and comes down in winter to rice fields and marshes, sometimes to sea level.
From Water Pipit
A 2013 study reconstructed its movements from a hundred years of ringing and recovery data.
From Water Pipit
Its plumage changes markedly between summer and winter, which complicates identification in the field outside the breeding season.
From Water Pipit
It sings on a parachuting descent to mark its territory.
From Meadow Pipit
It is one of the commonest hosts of the common cuckoo in northern Europe and on the Iberian Peninsula too.
From Meadow Pipit

Ecosystems