This smart pipit is familiar sight around the compost heaps, organic beds and grass lawns of Lotan for the best part of seven months of the year. A common to abundant migrant throughout Israel, the Red-throated Pipit is one of the more attractive members of a family group that is notoriously difficult to separate in the field. Any bird with a strong orange-red flush on the throat and upper breast combined with strong, black breast streaking such as those presented in these images, would present few identification problems. But in the field, many birders tend to rely on vocals to help them separate a number of similar species such as Meadow, Tree and Water Pipits. Red-throated does have a diagnostic call usually given in flight which can be described as a rather high pitched, drawn out and hissing 'pseeet'.

This species is a long distance migrant that breeds from Scandinavia east to Northern Siberia, and winters in north and central Africa, as well as the Middle East. In good years, such as the spring of 1995, up to 1,000 Red-throated Pipits have been counted in visible migration from Lotan, heading north along the Arava Valley. It's actually quite normal to see several hundreds during a day of migration at Lotan, spring or autumn.

Although it is such a common migrant, it is still much prized by visiting birders from Western Europe where it occurs only as a vagrant.

We hope you enjoy the images,

Good birding,

James Smith and the Birdingisrael Team