American pipit

noun

: a pipit (Anthus rubescens) that inhabits open areas of North America and Asia and has brown upperparts, buff underparts usually with streaks, and dark-colored legs

American pipits strutted like chickens and bobbed their tails while feeding in the fields and along the roadsides.

—James M. McCarty, Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 27 Mar. 2008

called also (British) buff-bellied pipit

Word History

First Known Use

1839, in the meaning defined above

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