Animalia Life

Anthus caffer
TAXONOMY
Anthus caffer Sundevall, 1850, Natal, South Africa. Five subspecies.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Bushveld pipit; French: Pipit cafre; German: Buschpieper; Spanish: Bisbita Negra.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
4.9–5.5 in (12.5–14 cm); 0.6 oz (16 g). Buff underparts streaked with brown at the throat and breast. Dark brownish head and upperparts with lighter eyestripe and chin.
DISTRIBUTION
A. c. caffer: Southeast Botswana, southwest Zimbabwe, northern South Africa and west Swaziland; A. c. traylori: South Mozambique and adjacent northeast South Africa; A. c. mzimbaensis: northeast Botswana, central Zimbabwe, northern Zambia, extreme southeast Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and western Malawi; A. c. blaneyi: Kenya and Tanzania; A. c. australoabyssinicus: Ethiopia.
HABITAT
Open woodland with patchy ground cover, woodland edges, and grassland with scattered trees.
BEHAVIOR
Occurs in pairs or small flocks, often with mixed-species bird parties. Flies to trees when disturbed. Some A. c. mzimbaensis undertake post-breeding movements from Botswana and Zimbabwe north to Zambia, DRC, and Malawi.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Forages for insects on the ground in grass and leaf-litter.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Monogamous. Breeds October through April, during rains. Nest is a thick-walled cup of grass, lined rootlets, on ground under tuft of grass. Lays two to three eggs.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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