The Short-tailed Pipit is a small, ground-living bird with bold streaks on its back and breast. It ranges from Gabon through the Congo region to eastern Angola and Zambia, with a separate population in Uganda. In southern Africa it uses moist, short grassland.
It has a relatively plain face, heavy streaking on the back and breast, and a short tail with conspicuous white outer panels in flight.
On the Klerk River floodplain in South Africa’s eastern Free State, breeding was recorded in grassland that had regrown to ankle height after a winter burn. On 18 December 2012, food-carrying birds were observed, and one nest concealed in a grass tuft held three fully feathered nestlings.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.