Phil and I found a well-marked Tree
Pipit at Sabkhat Al Fasl on Friday 2 October 2015. The bird was seen initially
from some distance and caused some thoughts of Olive-backed Pipit. The bird
appeared to have relatively plain upperparts, lacking streaking of Tree Pipit
and sometimes looking olive toned but other times more brownish. The bird,
however, lacked the obvious white supercilium and strong black lateral crown
strip normally shown above the supercilium of Olive-backed Pipit. The bird was
well marked below with large dark breast streaking ad had a very obvious ear
covert spot, although this lacked the black mark below that is often obvious in
Olive-backed Pipit. As we got closer to the bird it became apparent it was a
well-marked Tree Pipit and a couple of photos are shown below. One thing to mention is the bird looks much browner in the photos that it did in the field.
