First record of Richard's Pipit Anthus richardi in Slovenia
Prvi zapis za ostrožno cipo Anthus richardi za Slovenijo
Francesco Mascia
GOS (Sardinian Ornithological Group), Casella Postale 209/ C, 09045 Quartu Sant' Elena (Cagliari), Sardegna, Italy, e-mail: hippolais@tiscali.it
An individual of Richard's Pipit Anthus richardi was observed on the 10 Apr 2008 in the countryside near Dane pri Divači (Sežana, SW Slovenia). The bird flew by a small migratory group (6—7 specimens) of Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis that were resting in a cultivated field near the Kal v Lasatkah pond, 500 metres from the village. The Richard's Pipit, like the A. pratensis, made short flights in the fields, often coming close to the small waterhole. After about 40 minutes the migratory group left the area.
The group of Meadow Pipits was observed with 10x42 binoculars, and the remarkable conditions, — short distance, absence of wind and low grassy vegetation — allowed the observer to detect all the diagnostic morphological characters of the Richard's Pipit — large size, brown above, streaked, dark buff breast, and flanks, also streaked dark, long yellow-brownish legs with long and straight hindclaw, long tail with white outer-feathers, strong bill, strongly marked face with pale lores and eyebrow, dark eyestripe and malar streak. The distinguishing undulating flight and the typical contact vocalization was also recorded.
Further, on 8 and 9 Apr 2008, 3-4 individuals of Richard's Pipit were observed in some grasslands in the Valle delle Noghere (Muggia, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia / Milje, Trst, Furlanija Julijska Krajina), a locality about 15 km from the Slovenian site. This record is the first for Trieste province (E. Benussi, pers. comm..).
Richard's Pipit breeds in southern Siberia, Mongolia, parts of Central Asia and northern, central and eastern China. It winters mainly in the Indian sub-continent, South-east Asia and southern China, with records as far south as the Indochinese region (Cramp 1988, Snow & Perrins 1997).
In the Western Paleartic the species is considered to be a scarce or rare, but regular, migrant, especially in autumn (Cramp 1988, Simms 1992, Snow & Perrins 1997). Recently, the regular wintering of individuals
or small groups (and also of large groups) of birds has been confirmed in southern European regions (in order of records: Italy, Spain, mainland France, Portugal and Morocco). Occasional single wintering individuals have been recorded also for Belgium, Canary Islands, Corsica, Cyprus, Norway and the UK (Cramp 1988, Simms 1992, Snow & Perrins 1997, Grussu & Biondi 2004).
The species had never previously been recorded in Slovenia (Božič 2001). In the countries surrounding Slovenia, Richard's Pipit has been confirmed from Austria (irregular visitor), the Italian mainland (regular migrant), Croatia (rare visitor) and Hungary (occasional presence) (Snow & Perrins 1997, MME NB 1998, Magyar et al. 1998, Lukač 2007, Ranger 2008). In north-eastern Italy (Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia) the species is an irregular migrant (Sighele et al. 2004, Grussu & Biondi 2004, Parodi 2006).
According to available distributional data, the observation of an individual of Richard's Pipit in southern Slovenia is not surprising, because it is quite reasonable that at least some of the individuals wintering in southern Europe cross central Europe, Slovenia included. Further field research is needed to clarify the migratory relations of the Richard's Pipit with the Slovenian territory.
The record was confirmed by the National Rarities Committee — KRED (1st record for Slovenia after 1 Jan 1950 — A1).
Acknowledgements: I thank Luka Božič (Maribor, Slovenia), Marcello Grussu (Quartu Sant'Elena/CA, Sardinia/Italy) and Willy de Mattia (Muggia/TS, Italy) for critical comments; Enrico Benussi, Kajetan Kravos (Trieste, Italy) and Maurizio Sighele (Verona, Italy) for bibliographic material and unpublished records.
Povzetek
Dne 10.4.2008 je bil opazovan 1 osebek ostrožne cipe Anthus richardi pri vasi Dane pri Divači (JZ Slovenija), skupaj s skupino 6-7 travniških cip. To je prvo opazovanje te vrste v Sloveniji in sovpada z opazovanji 3-4 osebkov 8. in 9.4.2008 pri Miljah v Italiji, približno 15 km od opazovanja v Sloveniji in ki so obenem prva za Tržaško provinco. Podatek je potrdila Nacionalna komisija za redkosti — KRED (1. zapis za Slovenijo po 1.1.1950 — A1).
References
Božič, L. (2001): Seznam ugotovljenih ptic Slovenije s pregledom redkih vrst. — Acrocephalus 22 (106/107): 115-120.
Cramp, S. (1988): The Birds of the Western Paleartic. Vol. 5. — Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Grussu, M. & Biondi, M. (2004): Record numbers of wintering Richard's Pipits in the western Paleartic. — British Birds 97: 194—195.
Lukač, G. (2007): List of Croatian Birds. — Natura Croatica 16, suppl. 1.
Magyar, G, Hadarics, T., Waliczky, Z., Schmidt, A., Nagy, T. & Bankovics, A. (1998): Nomenclator Avium Hungariae — Magyarorszag madarainak névjegyzéke. — Madartani Intézet / MME / Winter Fair, Budapest-Szeged.
MME NB (Magyar Madartani Egyesület Nomenclator Bizottsaga) (1998): A Magyarorszagon elofordult madarak jegyzéke. — [http://www.c3.hu/~mme/nb/hun_ list.htm].
Parodi, R. (2006): Check-List degli uccelli del Friuli Venezia Giulia. — Gortania — Atti Museo Friul. Storia Nat. 28: 207—242.
Ranger, A. (2008): Avifaunistische Kommission BirdLife Österreich. — ArtenListe der Vögel Österreichs. — [www. birdlife-afk.at].
Sighele, M., Tonelli, A., Bottazzo, S., Fortran, D., Panzarin, L., Passerella, M., Piras, G., Sgorlon, G., Silveri, G., Stival, E., Trave, F. & Verza, E. (2004): EBN Italia, Check-list Veneto. — [www.ebnitalia.it].
Simms, E. (1992): British Larks, Pipits and Wagtails. — HarperCollins.
Snow, D.W. & Perrins, C.M. (1997): Birds of the Western Palearctic. Concise Edition. Vol. 2. — Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Arrived / Prispelo: 1.4.2009 Accepted / Sprejeto: 5.8.2009