American pipits are not mammals but they are warm-blooded animals. They
are birds, which means they have wings, a bill or beak, two legs,
and their bodies are covered with feathers. All birds are vertebrates,
and all vertebrates belong to the Phylum Chordata because they are
animals
with backbones. These birds are also prey; they are animals that
are
killed or eaten by a predator.
Each feather has three parts: the vane, the rachis, and the quill. The
vane is the soft, flat part, made up of thread-like structures that are
zipped together; the rachis, or shaft,goes up the middle of the feather
and supports the vane; and the quill is attached to the skin of the
bird and is the bottom part of the rachis.
The American pipit was formerly known as the water pipit, and is also
called a rock pipit, a titlank, or a wagtail. Several species of
pipits are endangered, including the South Georgia pipit, the
yellow-breasted pipit, the long-tailed pipit, the Sokoke pipit, and the
Sprague pipit.
The American pipit is endangered because of its habitat being destroyed
by people building houses on it.
Habitat
In the summer and fall the pipit heads toward marshy, treeless,
environments. Alpine and Arctic tundra are the only places the
American pipit breeds. They like Mt. Katahdin which is in Maine.
The American pipit also inhabits the alpine meadows which run along the
spine of the Rocky Mountains, extending as far as Colorado.
Although
Colorado is covered by snow for most of the year, many species of birds
have adapted to it.
The American pipit is usually found along seacoasts, beaches, mud
flats, wet meadows, sandy areas and fields, only when not
breeding. In Maine, the American pipit only inhabits a restricted
area near the summit
of Mt. Katahdin, in alpine meadows on sloping grounds.
Present Status
American Pipit is endangered only in Maine but everywhere else they are
a species of concern. Endangered means that they are on the way
to becoming extinct.
Physical Description
The American pipit is 5.5 inches long. It’s brownish-gray on its
upper part. Its belly and breast are rich and puffy, with faint
grayish streaks in its chest. There’s white on its outer
tail feathers. Instead of hopping, it walks around on open
grounds
such as fields. Its rear toenails (spurs) are elongated, which
means
longer than the rest. Its legs and bill are both dark.
Except
for a few birds in fall, it has white margins on its brown tail.
In summer, it's puffy below with fine breast streaks, and is grayish
above with little or no streaking. In the fall it's heavily
streaked below including its flanks, and it's dark brown above with
some blurry streaks.
Diet And Feeding Habits
The American pipit eats insects, spiders, mollusks, mites, crustaceans,
aquatic worms, and seeds. They are known as ground feeders since
they pluck grasses and weeds from the ground. It also eats bugs,
grasshoppers, crickets, ground beetles, caterpillars, plant bugs, and
ants.
Causes Of Endangerment
The American pipit used to be known as a water pipit. It
has become endangered in Maine because its population is extremely
small
in size, because of people building more and more houses over the years
on its habitat. In Maine there is a small colony at Mt.
Katahdin.
Since at least the1930’s a small isolated colony of American pipits has
bred on the sloping mass of rock debris at the base of Mt.
Katahdin.
Some recent reports say that nesting should continue unless something
unexpected happens.
Personal Essay
How does diversity strengthen an ecosystem?
If a person was destroying an animal's habitat then they should try not
to. They should get what they needed by some other way.
I think we should help animals by not polluting or putting fluids or
trash in their habitats. If an animal’s habitat was being
destroyed then its food source, which is part of its habitat, would get
less and
less, and soon it would have very little to eat and start dying
out.
Then the animal that ate that animal would soon have very little to eat
as well, so they would start dying out, and so on.
I think that if a certain animal is dying out because its food source
is low, then we should find a way to help it get what it needs to
eat. Say that an herbivore is dying out because its food source
is
getting low. That would mean that the kind of plant it eats is
getting low, perhaps because that certain plant is being destroyed
somehow. Many different animals’ habitats are being destroyed.
Different ways habitats are destroyed are by humans building more
and more houses, or by the
animals themselves being poisoned with gasses and pollution that we are
using around their habitats. I think to help this situation we
could
think of different ways to prevent pollution and gas from getting too
close to animals’ habitat.
I think that we could save the fish in the oceans, ponds, and
lakes, by not littering in the water, and maybe by not using many motor
boats, to keep fuel from killing the fish. Also if we thought
about the animals’ needs before we went ahead and did something bad to
their
habitat than it could make a big difference.
Some animals, such as the passenger pigeon, are extinct.
We could help prevent animals from becoming extinct by not polluting,
throwing away trash, and making sure that we take care of all the
different
animals’ habitats. We could help save habitats such as the ocean
and
the fish, by not throwing our trash into the water. when we throw our
trash into the water it could strangle them, or if a bottle cap ends
up in the water a fish could swallow it and choke.
My animal is the American pipit and it’s endangered only in Maine, but
we could help it by not building as many houses on its habitat.
Also a way to help my animal could be not to pollute or put fluids or
trash in their habitat.
Bibliography
1. Watkins, Patricia, et al. Life Science. Orlando, Florida:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1989.
