Birds
Sprague's Pipit
Anthus spragueii · also called Sprague's pipits
High above a stretch of northern Great Plains prairie, a Sprague’s pipit circles almost invisibly, its thin, high, tinkling song drifting down from several hundred feet up in a display that can continue for close to an hour before the bird finally returns to the ground.
Overview
Sprague’s pipit, Anthus spragueii, is a plain, streaky songbird native to native short-grass and mixed-grass prairie across the northern Great Plains of the United States and adjacent Canada. Its remarkable high-altitude, long-duration flight song, strong dependence on undisturbed native prairie, and sharp population declines make it one of the more conservation-significant grassland birds in North America.
A song delivered from nearly out of sight
Rather than singing from a visible perch, Sprague’s pipit takes its entire courtship performance hundreds of feet into the air, turning an otherwise plain, easily overlooked bird into a nearly invisible source of song drifting down from the sky.
Status
Near Threatened, having declined sharply as native prairie has been converted to cropland and other intensive agricultural use across its breeding range.
Sprague's Pipit: common questions
Why does Sprague's pipit sing so high in the air?
A male of this species delivers its entire courtship song while circling far overhead, sometimes climbing several hundred feet above the prairie, a display that lets the sound carry across the open, largely featureless grassland habitat where a ground-level song would be far less effective at reaching potential mates across such wide, open distances.
How long can Sprague's pipit stay in the air during its display?
This species can remain airborne during its display flight for close to an hour at a time, one of the longest sustained flight displays recorded among North American grassland birds, a genuinely demanding feat of endurance performed purely for courtship purposes.
Why has Sprague's pipit declined so sharply?
This species depends specifically on native, undisturbed short-grass and mixed-grass prairie, and the conversion of large areas of that prairie to cropland and other intensive agricultural use across its northern Great Plains breeding range has removed much of the specific habitat the species needs, driving significant population declines.
Why is Sprague's pipit hard to see even though it can be heard easily?
This species has a plain, streaky brown appearance that blends in closely with short-grass prairie, and because it spends much of its time either hidden on the ground or singing from high overhead rather than perched somewhere visible, it is often detected far more easily by its distinctive thin, high flight song than by actually spotting the bird.