Peruvian Pipit

The Peruvian pipit is one of the smallest members of genus Anthus. It is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a brown head with a weak whitish supercilium and a thin white eye-ring. Their upperparts are brown with dark streaks and white "braces" on the shoulders. Their wing coverts have pale tips that show as two wing bars. Their flight feathers are blackish brown with buff edges. Their tail is mostly blackish brown with much white on the outer two pairs of feathers. Their throat and underparts are whitish with dark brown streaks in a band across the breast. They have a dark iris, a dark maxilla, a pale pinkish mandible, and pale pinkish legs and feet.

The Peruvian pipit is found in a thin coastal band from Piura Department in far northwestern Peru south into extreme northwestern Chile's Arica Province. In Peru it inhabits marshes, pastures, and agricultural fields at elevations from sea level up to about 450 m (1,500 ft). In Chile it is found mostly in areas of short grass on sandy soils up to about 100 m (300 ft).

The Peruvian pipit's diet has not been studied but is known to include insects and thought to also include seeds. It forages while walking and running on the ground.