Softbills below the radar

PIPITS share the family Motacillidae with the wagtails and the longclaws. They are little known in aviculture, although when kept in captivity they have proved to be robust, active birds that are easy to maintain and breed. The wagtails, owing to their attractive plumage, are better known, even though worldwide there are only 14 species of wagtails compared with 47 species of pipits. The truth is that many pipits look similar, with striated brown or grey thrush-like plumage.

The long hind toe is a family characteristic, enabling all these birds to stand upright and run at speed. It is reduced and curved in the more arboreal tree pipit and is longest in the nine species of longclaws (). The latter is an African genus of attractive, sexually dimorphic species with large ochre black-edged throat patches. Many pipits pump their tails up and down, though they