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[First paragraph …] New Zealand pipits (Anthus n. novaeseelandiae) were apparently common in the open landscapes of the last glacial period (Worthy & Holdaway 1996). Before humans arrived, there were no mammalian predators in New Zealand but the pipit was an important food of the New Zealand falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae) and the laughing owl (Sceloglaux albifacies) (Worthy & Holdaway 2002). New Zealand pipits would have been likely to increase as more open habitats New Zealand developed during the 700 years since Polynesian settlement, because their close relatives on continents live with mammalian and avian predators (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990), and New Zealand pipits have an 8-month (Aug–Mar) breeding season during which multiple clutches of 1–4 are raised (Heather & Robertson 1996). Pipits did apparently initially increase in numbers during the phase of forest and scrub clearance following European settlement (Buller 1888; Guthrie-Smith 1927), but no recent studies have found pipits in high densities in any habitat (Beauchamp 1995). The factors that could be controlling pipit numbers include the deteriorating quality of open habitats (Lovegrove 1980), and high levels of predation by endemic avian and introduced mammalian predators (Wilkinson & Wilkinson 1952).