Сулыққұс (Sulyqqús)

Species of passerine bird

The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of Southern Europe and the Palearctic eastwards to China. It is a short distance migrant; many birds move to lower altitudes or wet open lowlands in winter. The water pipit in breeding plumage has greyish brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. The head is grey with a broad white supercilium ("eyebrow"), and the outer tail feathers are white. In winter, the head is grey brown, the supercilium is duller, the upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, streaked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks. There are only minor differences among the three subspecies, the sexes are almost identical, and young birds resemble adults. The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about six repetitions of a different short note. Water pipits construct a cup like nest on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled grey ish white eggs, which hatch in about two weeks with a further 14–15 days to fledging. Although pipits occasionally catch insects in flight, they feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the ground or vegetation, and also some plant material. The water pipit may be hunted by birds of prey, infested by parasites such as fleas, or act as an involuntary host to the common cuckoo, but overall its population is large and stable, and it is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about half a dozen repetitions of a different short note. The call of the water pipit is a single or double sharp "dzip" or similar, slightly harsher than soft sip sip sip of the meadow pipit or the shrill pseep of the European rock pipit. The short, thin fist flight call is intermediate between the sip of the meadow pipit and the rock pipit's feest. The eggs are incubated by the female for 14–15 days to hatching. Chicks are fed initially by the male, both parents sharing the duty after a few days when the female does not need to brood so often, and they fledge in a further 14–15 days.

The water pipit's feeding habitat is damp grassland, rather than the rocky coasts favoured by the Eurasian rock pipit. In areas with acidic soils, there is less calcium available, potentially leading to thinner egg shells. In such locations, pipits are more likely to select snails and similar prey with calcium rich shells than is the case in limestone terrain.

The water pipit is hunted by birds of prey including the Eleonora's falcon, and eggs and young may be taken by terrestrial predators including stoats and snakes. A new species of feather mite, Proctophyllodes schwerinensis, was discovered on the water pipit, which is also a host to the fleas Ceratophyllus borealis and Dasypsyllus gallinulae. Along with other Motacillidae species, the water pipit is a host of the protozoan parasite Haemoproteus anthi.

Estimates of the European breeding population of the water pipit vary widely, but may be as high as two million pairs, which would suggest a global population of tens of millions of individuals spread over The range is discontinuous due to the mountain habitat this species uses, but the population is considered overall to be large and stable, and for this reason the water pipit is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN. Breeding densities (in pairs per ten ha) have been recorded as 2.4 in the Jura Mountains, 3.0–3.6 in the Alps and 4.5 in the Tatra Mountains of Poland.