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The UK Bird Atlas

Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta)Where and when to see it in the UK

Winter visitor · reporting peaks January · Wagtails and Pipits · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta)
Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Water Pipit: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Water Pipit has been recorded in 424 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (14%) in records to 2026. Winter visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in January.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
15% or more of visits
High
3% to 15%
Moderate
1% to 3%
Low
under 1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 95%1%High
February 76%<1%Very high
March 75%<1%Very high
April 21%<1%Low
May 0%<1%Very high
June 0%<1%Very high
July 0%<1%Very high
August 0%<1%Very high
September 1%<1%Very high
October 41%<1%Low
November 100%1%Moderate
December 85%1%High

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NT47East Lothian, Scotland100%Very high
SD41Lancashire, England100%Very high
SD91Rochdale, England100%Very high
SE01Kirklees, England100%Very high
SE30Barnsley, England100%Very high
SH12Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SH43Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SH47Isle of Anglesey, Wales100%Very high
SJ45Cheshire West and Chester, England100%Very high
SJ47Cheshire West and Chester, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.