Faansie Peacock (Self-published, 2006)

Writing a review of a book which is entirely dedicated to the pipits of southern Africa might at first glance seem obscure, like an act of one-upmanship that says to the majority of mainly residential birders, “I travel a lot, so I need a book like this even if you don’t” - but bear with me, because this book is a remarkable achievement and richly deserves the few minutes it’ll take to glance through this page…

What makes a book on “LBJs” (or ‘Little Brown Jobs’ as Faansie and most South African birders I’ve met call anything that isn’t an Ostrich or a Lilac-breasted Roller) so darn good? I mean to say - Pipits! Of all the LBJs (which generally include larks, warblers, and cisticolas) they really don’t seem to have that much going for them: aren’t they the ones that are sometimes impossible to identify (separable only by those peculiar birders who are deeply interested in the internal markings of wing covert feathers), that can be frustratingly difficult to see well as they creep around in long grass or flush and hurtle over the nearest hill, and the birds that even the “experts” seem unable to agree whether half of them are good species or not? You might think so. You might also think that the derogotary term “anorak birder” could have been coined to describe a ‘pipitophile’ - but from the opening “How to Use this Book” on page 20 right through to the closing three Appendices some 260 pages later, “Pipits of Southern Africa” is absolutely fascinating and - like a good novel - almost ‘unputdownable’.

The bulk of this book is devoted to marvellously detailed studies of each of the sixteen pipit species found in southern Africa (the region of the world with by far the most pipit taxa either residing in or migrating to it): these are the fourteen species of Anthus, including the very recently described Kimberley Pipit (the account of which includes an excellent discussion on the work done by Richard Liversidge and Gary Voelker that led to the taxon being named in 2002), and the two species included in Hemimacronyx (Yellow-breasted Pipt) and Tmetothylacus (Golden Pipit). Each has pages of description, a generous sprinkle of line drawings, and a range map.

So far, nothing unexpected then, and in the wrong hands this could have been an authoritative but dry and difficult book. “Pipits of Southern Africa”, though, is anything but ‘dry’ or ‘difficult’.

Researched, written, illustrated (with line drawings and paintings), and self-published by Faansie Peacock, a South African who became obsessed with pipits after working his way through the region’s larger and more immediately identifiable birds, “Pipits of Southern Africa” is packed with fresh thinking, concisely written in precise yet eminently accessible prose, and reads like it is the result of a life-time’s study - but Faansie Peacock is still only in his mid-twenties, a research student at the University of Pretoria, and obviously an over-achiever of real talent.

Shot through with personal experiences of Faansie’s time in the field, shaded boxes on many pages contain entertaining discussions on, for example, “Mixed Bird Parties: more than meets the eye” (relevant to Bushveld Pipits) and “Passerines, songbirds, oscines - Avian evolution in a nutshell”. There are sections on foraging behaviour, breeding biology, a plea for grassland conservation, explanations why pipits wag their tails (apparently to flush insect prey and perhaps to draw out hidden predators), a page on systematics and alternative pipit genera, a look at the collectors and/or researchers involved in the history and science of Africa’s pipits, and short almost anecdotal passages on finding the region’s more elusive pipit species. There is just so much packed into this book - and it’s so well executed - that it’s impossible not to become enthused along with the author by these surprisingly interesting little birds.

I should be honest here and state the blinking obvious that I’m not expert enough to say whether everything that the author writes about southern African pipits is totally correct or not, but I bought this book after watching Etienne Marais - a hugely experienced and talented birder himself who had a large hand in editing “Pipits of Southern Africa” - using it to identify a tricky pipit we found perched up on a bush in the savanna north of Pretoria. Both of us had worked out that we were either looking at an oddly-coloured Plain-backed Pipit or an oddly-coloured Buffy Pipit - one of southern Africa’s most commonly mis-identified species-pairs - before we turned to “Pipits of Southern Africa”. Within a few minutes of studying the relevant sections we were sure we were looking at a Buffy: every little plumage feature was listed, the jizz was perfectly described, and there was even a sentence pointing out that Buffys are “generally quite active, but sometimes spends long periods on a low vantage point surveying [the] environment” which was exactly what our bird was doing. ‘Totally correct’ or not I don’t know, but there’s no doubt at all that Faansie has spent countless hours in the field studying his subjects and knows them inside out.

Are there any criticisms? Whilst the line drawings seem spot-on, the paintings (grouped together at the start of the “Field Guide”section) are perhaps a touch stylised and have reproduced a little darkly. They appear to be accurate (like I say I’m no expert so I can’t say for certain), the text says that they’re accurate, and Etienne says they’re accurate - but in the interests of writing a review rather than a panegyric, I feel I should say that whilst I like them some people may prefer a lighter illustrative hand. That’s it - and not so much a criticism as an opinion anyway. This really is an astounding book and if you don’t come away from it with a new found respect for pipits and LBJs in general you should take up some other hobby, because there really can’t be a more lively and fascinating book of this type in print.

Which is where the one major problem with this book comes in: it’s not actually “in print”. Sadly it’s now out-of-print and very difficult to get hold of. Faansie produced the whole thing himself (in the preface he says with modest understatement that “with the advent of desktop publishing software a home PC now gives potential authors the ability to publish books without once stepping foot inside a publisher’s office” - software and a huge dollop of talent too of course) and apparently only had the funds to have 1000 copies printed. It’s a crying shame that more people can’t buy this book - I’m sure anyone with even a passing interest in Pipits would love it: and that’s why I’ve written this review. Consider it the opening salvo in the “REPUBLISH THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY” campaign (a campaign that needs a few more voices than just a UK-based blogger - the ‘comments’ button is just a few inches away folks)…

Summary:
Softback (2006), 296 pages, “Pipits of Southern Africa”, Faansie Peacock.
This now out-of-print book is an object lesson in what can be produced by an expert birder with a passion for his subject and a desktop publishing software package. It’s richly illustrated, every page is fascinating, the text is detailed but always readable, and I came away with a new found interest in pipits that I would never have guessed I had within me. If you see a copy on sale - buy it!