Meadow Pipit or a Tree Pipit

At Fygyn Common this morning was myself and Andrew Hughes. We caught and processed a mixed bag including Grasshopper Warbler, Reed Bunting, Tree Pipit and Meadow Pipit. Andrew is a Teifi Ringing Group trainee so it was an opportune moment to look at identification of Tree Pipit and Meadow Pipit having extracted one of each at the same time

About 10 days ago Andrew and I caught 3 Meadow Pipits. We went through the process of identifying the birds as Meadow Pipits by the lengths of their hind claws being between 10mm and 13mm. Today having a Tree Pipit and a Meadow Pipit together was a great opportunity to compare birds. Our Meadow Pipit had a hind claw length of 13mm. The other Pipit had a hind claw of 8mm which fitted that of a Tree Pipit.

From Svennson Hind Claw 7-9mm and bill of a Tree Pipit

Picture shows by measurement primary number 5 is approximately 3.5mm shorter that 2,3 and 4.

From Svennson it says that the Tree Pipit primary projection, wing Point, are primaries 2,3 and 4 and primary 5 being shorter from 2-6.5mm from the tip of the wing. Our Tree Pipit was approximately 3.5mm which places it in the Tree Pipit category.

This picture clearly shows the different lengths of the hind claws. The Tree Pipit in the foreground with the shorter claw of 8mm.
There are another two other clues in this picture helping to identify one species from the other. You can see the Tree Pipit has a large buff coloured supercilium going behind the eye. On the Meadow Pipit it is rather indistinct and on some birds not apparent. Also the bill of a Tree Pipit is thicker/stumpier than that of a Meadow Pipit albeit in the picture it is emphasised somewhat because the Tree Pipit is at the front. Side by side today you could clearly see the difference.

This picture taken from Svennson shows the claw length of a Meadow Pipit. Also it says the primary projection, wing point, are primaries 2,3 and 4 and primary 5 being slightly shorter from 0-1mm and exceptionally 2mm from the tip of the wing. It also shows the smaller indistinct supercillium.

Our Tree Pipit from today.

The hind claw length was 8mm
The difference in length of the shorter primary 5 to primary 4 was 3.5mm which fits into the category of 2-6.5mm.
The bill was thicker/stumpier than that of the Meadow Pipit.
The Tree Pipit has clear supercillium going behind the eye.

Thanks Andrew for coming today. When Andrew had the bird in his hand he said this bird has a short claw, it was great to hear him say that because he remembered previous training we had together. Having caught several Tree Pipits in the last few weeks I had a good idea that it was probably another. I then let Andrew check all the identification criteria as he could using Svennson with the minimum help from me. He did well!