Sandgrouse 23 (1): May 2001
The occurrence of Long-billed Pipit Anthus similis in Egypt

ANDREW GRIEVE, SHERIF M. BAHA EL DIN AND MINDY BAHA EL DIN

We present the first documented occurrences of Long-billed Pipit Anthus similis in Egypt, at Gebel Elba in April 1997 and November 2000. Goodman & Meininger (1989) did not include Long-billed Pipit on the Egyptian list, although the species appears to be breeding, at least locally, in the extreme south-east of the country. The subspecies concerned is presumed to be A. s. nivescens, which was previously known to occur from south-east Sudan to coastal Kenya. A previous claim of the species in Egypt in 1996 is also discussed.

INTRODUCTION
	ON 1 APRIL 1997, during a visit to the Gebel Elba Protected Area, in Egypt's Eastern Desert, near the border with Sudan, a group of at least nine pipits was discovered, by AG, singing and displaying in a narrow, rocky wadi with scattered Acacia and other, low vegetation. The wadi is located on the north-east side of Gebel Elba (1435 metres), at 22o13'N 36o23'E. They were immediately identified as Long-billed Pipits. Their behaviour suggested that they were holding territory and possibly attempting to breed. The following morning, SMBD and MBD visited the same area. They concurred with the identification and observed a total of 12 individuals singing and displaying. There is a subsequent record of this species at Gebel Elba, from 5 November 2000; one was observed, by SMBD, very briefly in the open Acacia parkland on the plain just north of the mountain.
DESCRIPTION
	The following composite description was taken of three to four individuals closely observed by AG.  Size and shape. Appeared similar in size to Tawny Pipit Anthus campestris, though direct comparison not possible. Shape closer to Richard's Pipit Anthus richardi, with a proportionately longer tail and longish tarsus combining to produce a tall, upright stance, with the head held up and bill angled above the horizontal.  Upperparts. General coloration closer to Tawny than the richer brown of Richard's Pipit, with a noticeable grey mantle contrasting with the rest of the upperparts and wing-coverts, which were browner. Tail and primaries darker than rest of upperparts. Crown, nape and mantle lightly streaked darker grey. Median coverts edged buff to off-white, creating indistinct wingbar, and second, indistinct, wingbar discernable on greater coverts, which were also edged buff to off-white, but not as distinctly as in Tawny or Richard's Pipits. In flight, the pale brownish outertail feathers were very distinctive, extending as a broad shaft on the distal part of the feather. Underparts. Generally off-white to dirty white merging into buffish lower belly, flanks and undertail-coverts. Pale, vertical grey streaking across upper breast, broadest at sides. Head. Quite well marked with a clearly defined, narrow, creamy/white supercilium emanating from base of bill, above eye (duller in front of eye), extending to and curving around rear of ear-coverts. Dark stripe through eye, ear-coverts darker grey/brown than rest of head, lightly streaked. Crown slightly darker; throat paler buff to whitish, whitish moustachial stripe and narrow grey/brown malar stripe. Bare parts. Bill long and decurved at tip, dark upper mandible and yellow lower mandible with a small dark tip. Legs medium to long, pale pink to straw coloured. Behaviour and voice. A simple weak song heard, comprising 3-4 notes, a combination of weak 'shree' or 'chree' calls interspersed with a 'cheweet'. Several display flights observed and song also uttered from atop small Acacia bushes or on ground. Several chases also observed. Calls heard from ground and in flight, transcribed as a weak 'cheup', completely different from loud, sharp 'tchip tchip' or 'tchlip tchlip' sometimes uttered by Tawny Pipit on ground and in flight, and the more usual and distinctive sparrow-like 'chirrup' or 'cheep' call. Call also wholly different from harsh, drawn-out 'shreeep' of Richard's Pipit. Plates 1-2. Long-billed Pipit Anthis similis, Gebel Elba, south-east Egypt, 1 April 1997. (Andrew Grieve)
DISCUSSION
	Long-billed Pipit is widespread in southern, East and West Africa, east through Arabia to the Himalayas, India and Burma (Snow & Perrins 1998). It is considered largely sedentary in most areas, which has led to a large number of races being admitted by some authors. Disagreement persists concerning the distribution and salient features of some of these and our discussion therefore endeavours to follow current views. Races in the Levant, Arabia and north-east Africa, those areas closest to Gebel Elba, vary in general size, have either grey- or buff-edged wing-coverts, variable wing lengths, variable mantle and upper breast streaking, and differ in the extent and tone of the underparts coloration (Keith et al. 1992, Snow & Perrins 1998, Clancey 1986). Other distinguishing features, e.g. the relative intensity of grey or buff in the crown, mantle and back, tail length, brightness and extent of the supercilium, exist but due to a lack of detailed descriptions and measurements for each form, herein only those features noted by various authors are examined here. These are summarised in Table 1 and relate to adults in spring, based on published information (Clancey 1986, Cramp 1993, Keith et al. 1992, Laird & Gencz 1993, Mackworth-Praed & Grant 1955, Nikolaus 1987, Snow & Perrins 1998, Vaurie 1959).

Table 1. Measurements and features of races of Long-billed Pipit Anthus similis in Levant, north-east Africa and Arabia. Claims, based on examination of skins, that A. s. arabicus occurs in Sudan and A. s. nivescens in Arabia (Clancey 1986) are not substantiated by the work of subsequent authors. Measurements (wing lengths) were taken from the following sources: (a) Vaurie (1959); (b) Keith et al. (1992); (c) Clancey (1986); and (d) Cramp (1993).
Race	Range	Size	Upperparts	Wing	Legs	Mantle	Underparts	Breast	Head
captus	Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel	Small	Grey-edged coverts	M 95-97 (a) M 94-98 (d) F 89-92 (d)	Short	Streaking pale/dull	Dull pale grey, not as buff	Lightly streaked	Poorly marked
decaptus	Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan (winter in north Oman?)	Large	Buff-edged coverts	M 99-105 (a) M 94-105 (d) F 95-101 (d)	Long	Streaking bolder	Dull white to buff, can be extensively buff	More heavily streaked	Boldly marked
arabicus	South-west Saudi Arabia, west Yemen, north Oman and United Arab Emirates	Large	Buff-edged Coverts	M 96 105 (c) F (93) (c)	Long	Streaking bolder	Extensively buff	Lightly streaked	Boldly marked
nivescens	North-east Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, north Kenya	Small	Grey-edged coverts	M 90-98 (b) M 93-99 (c) F 85-91.5 (c)	Medium	Streaking bolder	Off-white, buff restricted to lower belly and undertail-coverts	Moderately streaked	Boldly marked

	The small size, off-white underparts with buff limited to lower belly and undertail-coverts, and mid-intensity streaking on the upper breast and mantle suggest that those individuals at Gebel Elba belong to the north-east African race, A. s. nivescens, which most authorities consider to reach as far north as south-east Sudan. No field observations exist to support the claim of Clancey (1986) that A. s. arabicus occurs in Sudan/Ethiopia, nor that A. s. nivescens occurs in Yemen and that intergrades between the two forms occur in both north-east Africa and south-west Arabia. The appearance of the Gebel Elba individuals closely accords with published descriptions of A. s. nivescens and confirms the presence of that form in north-east Africa, rather than A. s. arabicus, which is larger, longer legged with a very upright posture, more heavily streaked, particularly on the mantle, has more extensive buff tones on the underparts, and buff-edged coverts, rather than grey as in those at Gebel Elba. A. s. nivescens is common to rare from Sudan south to Ethiopia and Eritrea, and possibly coastal Kenya (Ash 1998, van Perlo 1995, Urban & Brown 1971, Zimmerman et al. 1996). Its preferred habitat is rocky hillsides with scattered sparse vegetation (Ash 1998). Long-billed Pipit was previously known to occur only as far north as c. 390 km south of Gebel Elba, in the Red Sea mountains of Sudan (Nikolaus 1987, Cave & Macdonald 1955). Given that ornithological coverage of east Sudan and south Egypt has been limited, a northward spread of Long-billed Pipit, through the Red Sea mountains, or the presence of an outlier population, could easily have remained undetected. A number of Afrotropical species reach their northernmost limits at Gebel Elba, which receives the highest precipitation in the region, over 400 mm annually, supports a relatively rich flora (Baha El Din 1999) and offers suitable habit for the species, as evidenced by the song and display noted. Few data concerning the nesting season of Long-billed Pipit in East Africa are available; Ash & Miskell (1998) report that breeding in Somalia has been recorded in March. The behaviour of those at Gebel Elba conforms to known breeding behaviour (Snow & Perrins 1998), 'for song-flight, the male usually ascends from a perch with quivering wings; ascends (while singing) to considerable height and may stay aloft for several minutes'. Given the subsequent sighting, in November, on the Gebel Elba plain, it is probable that Long-billed Pipit is resident in the region, as the species is known to descend to lower elevations in the winter in Sudan (Cave & Macdonald 1953), and the Western Palearctic (Snow & Perrins 1998). There is a previous claim of Long-billed Pipit for Egypt, by J. M. Bayldon, on 24 September 1996. Two large, bulky pipits were observed while he was birding on the Red Sea island of Giftun Kebir, offshore from Hurghada. They were on a small plateau 300 metres from the shore and were approached to within 20 metres. The following salient features were noted for the presumed adult, and subsequently attributed to Long-billed Pipit. Size and shape. Similar to Richard's Pipit. Upright stance with bill held above the horizontal. Head. Face almost featureless, dull white supercilium tapering at rear; very thin dusky eye-stripe behind dark eye and not noticed on lores. Ear-coverts pale buff-brown, no detectable outline to ear-coverts. Moustachial stripe only visible at close range, a thin malar stripe, terminating well short of the bill. Chin and throat creamy. Upperparts. Crown, nape, mantle and scapulars grey-brown with diffuse dull brown streaking only visible at close range. Median coverts with black/brown centres, more diffuse on inner feathers, pale buff-white tips and edges. Greater coverts had brown centres with pale buff fringes (fine) and tips forming a very narrow wingbar (not obvious). Tertials diffuse black/brown with broad pale buff fringing (not sharp). Secondaries had pale buff fringing to black/ brown feathers forming pale panel. Primaries black/brown. Tail dark brown, central feathers darkest with buff fringing. No white detected in the tail when flushed or upon subsequent landing. Underparts. Creamy with pale grey-buff wash to breast-sides and flanks; breast with sparse diffuse streaking only noted at close range Bare parts. Eyes dark, legs pale yellow to flesh brown, bill stout with distinctive downward curve, brown-horn above, yellow-flesh below, dark tip Voice. When flushed called 'tchip tchip', on ground also a 'tchip' but one gave a dry 'djeep'. The other individual was considered to be a juvenile and was similar to the adult, but possessed sharper markings to the upperparts, wings and breast, with feathers edged and tipped cinnamon, and underparts uniform pale cinnamon. This description does not conform to A. s. nivescens, which is smaller than 'Richard's Pipit' and has a more distinctly marked head, mantle and upper breast. The lack of buff on the underparts of one appears to preclude A. s. arabicus, which is one of the largest races but has generally more buff underparts and a more heavily marked head and mantle with buff-fringed wing-coverts. The presumed juvenile had uniform pale cinnamon underparts with apparently strongly cinnamon-edged feathers, and being large might favour A. s. arabicus, but the overall description is insufficient to establish the identification. The large size-'Richard's Pipit size'-of those at Hurghada, combined with the lack of mention of the proportionately much shorter legs, appears to eliminate the Levant race, A s. captus, which is one of the smallest races (see Table 1) and perhaps the most likely to occur in the northern Red Sea. The nearest breeding areas of captus are in central Jordan and north Israel, c. 450 km distant, but this race is largely sedentary, performing only limited altitudinal movements in winter, the longest thus far recorded being 30 km, in Israel (Shirihai 1996). However, the species has wandered to Cyprus, involving a movement of 250 km from the nearest breeding grounds, in north Lebanon, if the individual concerned was captus (Snow & Ferrins 1998). No details of its racial identify have been published. Records of vagrants in Iraq and Kuwait probably refer to A. s. decaptus from Iran or Afghanistan, which is partially migratory in some of its range (Paludan 1959, Snow & Perrins 1998). Thus, the racial identity of the Hurghada sighting requires clarification prior to potential acceptance of the record. It should be noted that both Richard's and Tawny Pipits occur as passage migrants in Egypt. The former is rare, but regular in autumn, mainly in south Sinai. Tawny Pipit is a relatively common passage migrant throughout the country and a scarce winter visitor (Goodman & Meininger 1989).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
	We extend our gratitude to the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (FEAA) and European Union (EU), who supported survey work in the Gebel Elba Protected Area, in 1997, as part of the National Protected Area Mission. Furthermore, we thank Dr Moustafa Fouda, Director, Nature Conservation Sector, EEAA for his assistance in arranging the visit to Gebel Elba in autumn 2000.
REFERENCES
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