for identification

african pipit or tawny pipit??

The obvious greyish brown ground color of the breast here seems very unusual for a Tawny in any plumage. According a number of pictures of African Pipit this character fits this species much better, see for instance here..

If I understand well, this is an african Pipit, right?

It looks like it ..

@Frank: then this would be a first for the WP (check range of species on fe e-bird), are you sure the pic is good enough to reach that conclusion?

African pipits... scary stuff, especially since no one likes to depict them!

Although "Birds of Western Africa" mentions African Pipit as a local breeder (of unknown race) closer to Algeria than the ebird records show, I think the first thing to do would be categorically exclude Tawny Pipit.

(Note that the race of Long-billed Pipit which occurs in northern Niger has a buffy belly. Richard's Pipit is another possibility but that has a more expressive face pattern).

The colours in the picture look a bit "orange" – when I try to think of more natural colours a young Tawny Pipit looks more likely. The head pattern also reminds me more of that species than of the larger pipits.

@Pieter, Jan-Hein: Based on my personal experience with a couple of hundred Tawny Pipits (of which 80 - 90% young birds in late summer and autumn) in Noord-Brabant and Limburg (NL) I can say that I never saw a bird with such an obvious contrast between the ground colour of breast and belly like this Algerian bird. Although I never saw African Pipit it struck me immediately that on quite a few photo's of this species this contrast was clearly visible. Furthermore it looks to me that the dark loral spot in Tawny is more obvious and sometimes even breaks the orbital ring..

I would say that more photo’s are needed to exclude Tawny, are there more pictures?

A much easier bird to identify from Algeria, but just outside the WP: Cut-throat. Not so unexpected because it breeds nearby in Mali.

On the other hand, the less spectacular Village Indigobird is new for the WP.

Grotere piepers op het Arabisch Schiereiland waren (zeker wanneer stil) ook best lastig.