Young birds resembles the non-breeding adult, but are browner and more streaked above with prominent streaking on the underparts.
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The females are more streaked on their breasts, sides and rumps, but are still pale. Adults are about in length and weigh about . Wingspan ranges from 20-25 cm.
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Niceforo's pintail was darker and richer in colouration than the nearest other subspecies, the Chilean pintail A. g. spinicauda, with the head and neck more streaked, the crown dark brown and with a less pointed tail.
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Clarke, Tony; Chris Orgill & Tony Disley (2006). Field Guide to the Birds of the Atlantic Islands. Christopher Helm, London. First-winter European birds have more checkered upperparts, more streaked underparts, and a paler rump and base to the tail.
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The females are duller in colour and are more streaked than the males. They grow to be 20 cm long and are characterised by their bobbing flight which is similar to that of a woodpecker. They eat mostly insects, but sometimes eat seeds.
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Immature birds resemble the adult, although they may sometimes be browner and more streaked above, looking superficially similar to meadow pipits. Compared to the nominate form, A. p. kleinschmidti has slightly yellower, less olive, upperparts and brighter and yellower underparts between the breast streaking. A. p.
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Birds on Hainan Island (L. c. owstoni) are paler below and more olive-coloured above. The Taiwan hwamei is greyer and more streaked and lacks the white markings on the head. The song is a loud, clear, varied whistling with regular repetition and imitations of other birds.
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The rump is azure- blue. The chin is white, the breast is tawny with some dark streaks, and the belly is buffy. The beak is red, tipped brown, the legs are carmine, and the eyes are dark brown. The female has dark brown upperparts, and its underparts are more streaked than the male.
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Females are larger than males and northern populations are notably larger than southern populations. (2011). Adults are larger than whiskered screech owls, with larger feet and a more streaked plumage pattern. There are several morphs: brown Pacific, grey Pacific, Great Plains, Mojave, and Mexican. All have either brown or dark gray plumage with streaking on the underparts.
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Blanford's lark is 14-15 centimetres long. The upperparts are pale sandy-brown with some darker streaking and the crown is rufous. The underparts are pale and plain apart from a small dark patch on the side of the neck made up of vertical streaks. The greater short-toed lark is similar but has a greyer, more-streaked crown.
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The common reed bunting is a medium-sized bird, 13.5–15.5 cm long, with a small but sturdy seed- eater's bill. The male has a black head and throat, white neck collar and underparts, and a heavily streaked brown back. The female is much duller, with a streaked brown head, and is more streaked below. The song of the male is a repetitive .
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This bird is closely related to the more widespread red knot. In breeding plumage, the latter has a distinctive red face, throat and breast. In other plumages, the great knot can be identified by its larger size, longer bill, deeper chest, and the more streaked upperparts. These birds forage on mudflats and beaches, probing or picking up food by sight.
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The Cuban subspecies S. m. hippocrepis (Wagler, 1832) is small and more streaked below, and may be a separate species This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Alauda magna. The type locality is mistakenly given as "America, Africa". Linnaeus' error is explained by two facts: first, he did not distinguish between the eastern and western meadowlarks.
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Eggs at the Muséum de Toulouse The common redpoll is a small brownish-grey finch with dark streaks and a bright red patch on its forehead. It has a black bib and two pale stripes on the wings. Males often have their breasts suffused with red. It is smaller, browner and more streaked than the generally similar Arctic redpoll, adults measuring between in length and weighing between .
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The outer tail feathers are white, and the legs, bill and iris are dark brown or blackish. In non-breeding plumage, the head is grey-brown and the supercilium is less distinct. The upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, marked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks. The sexes are similar although the female has, on average, a greyer head.
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The pine bunting is a robust 16–17.5-centimetre bird, with a thick seed-eater's bill. The male has a white crown and cheeks, and a chestnut forehead and throat, and a heavily streaked brown back. The female is much duller and is more streaked on its undersides. Non-breeding plumage is like that of a yellowhammer, but with all the yellow replaced by white.
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The Himalayan races have a more prominent crest and are more streaked on the underside. The Race intermedius of the Western Himalayas has a black hood extending to the mid- breast. Population bengalensis of Central and Eastern Himalayas and the Gangetic plain has a dark hood, lacks the scale like pattern on the underside and instead has dark streaks on the paler lower belly. Race stanfordi of the South Assam hills is similar to intermedius.
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The lesser short-toed lark is similar in size and appearance to the greater short- toed lark but is generally a duller-looking bird with a more streaked breast. It grows to a length of from and the sexes are similar. As with the greater short-toed lark, the colour varies across the broad range and is not a good distinguishing feature. It is dark-streaked greyish-brown above, and white below.
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Most adults are usually a general grey-brown or rufous-tawny color, with occasional pale spotting visible at close quarters on the nape and belly, coverts uniformly toned as the body. The nape is consistently dark and uniform despite the feathers often being tipped paler with other feathers in adults, lacking the contrasting paler feathers often seen in other Aquila. Females, in addition to being slightly larger, may tend to be slightly darker and more streaked than the males.
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The female is less brightly coloured, and more streaked on the crown, breast, and flanks. Both sexes are less strongly marked outside the breeding season, when the dark fringes on new feathers obscure the yellow plumage. The juvenile is much duller and less yellow than the adults, and often has a paler rump. After breeding, adults have a complete moult, which takes at least eight weeks; males acquire more yellow in the plumage each time they moult.
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She is streaked with brown on the face, crown, upperparts, throat, breast and flanks, and shows two indistinct buffy wingbars on her brown wings. Her beak is two-toned; the upper mandible ranges in color from dusky brown to black, while the lower mandible is dull orange or dull pink. The immature male is intermediate between the adult male and the adult female. While he shows blackish on his face and throat, he is more streaked below than is the adult male.
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Juveniles and immatures are generally darker and more streaked, with brown to orange eyes and red neck. The average length of adult birds is about with a wingspan of and a body weight of . The two prominent bare skin patches at the base of the neck, also found in the white-backed vulture, are thought to be temperature sensors and used for detecting the presence of thermals. The species is among the largest raptors in Africa, next to the lappet-faced vulture.
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The plumage of juvenile birds after fledging has not been described, but can be assumed to be similar to the female's plumage. The only similar species that occur in the Afghan snowfinch's range are the white- winged snowfinch and the desert finch. It can be distinguished from the former by the smaller white patches on the wings and an overall more brownish plumage. While it is similar in general appearance to the latter species, the Afghan snowfinch is more streaked, has stronger facial markings, and has a smaller bill, among other differences.
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The edible and highly regarded T. portentosum is of a similar size, though has a uniform grey cap that is never scaled. In North America, Tricholoma pardinum can be confused with T. nigrum and forms of T. virgatum that have more streaked rather than spotted caps. A form of T. pardinum in North America can be nearly white with pale scales, and may be confused with the whitish edible species T. resplendens. Microscopically, the presence of clamp connections sets T. pardinum apart from most other members of the genus; the similar-looking (though more tan-coloured) T. venenatum also has them.
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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.
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