Scientific name: Anthus cinnamomeus
The African pipit is 15 to 17 cm long and is a slender bird with an erect stance. It is buffy-brown above with darker streaks. The underparts are white or pale buff with a streaked breast and plain belly and flanks. The face is boldly patterned with a pale stripe over the eye and a dark malar stripe. The outer tail-feathers are white. The legs are long and pinkish and the slender bill is dark with a yellowish base to the lower mandible.
Here it is common across much of the region excluding arid areas of Namibia, south-western Botswana and western South Africa. It generally prefers moist grassland, lightly wooded savanna, dry flood plains, recently burnt grassland, roadsides, playing fields and agricultural land.
It mainly eats insects and other arthropods, doing most of its foraging on the ground, sifting through debris in search of food and occasionally hawking prey aerially.
