Grey-backed Cisticola

Cisticola subruficapilla

Fynbos, scrubland. Dark rufous head with paler buff underparts, grey and black streaking on back.

Cisticolas

Near Endemic

Description

Common, near-endemic resident. Southern race (a) has grey back with black streaking extending to forehead, ear coverts and upper breast. Northwestern race (b) has upper parts less obviously grey, streaks finer and fainter, and the sub-loral spot absent. Immature is rustier; yellow-orange about the face, eyes grey, bill yellower and legs paler. The breeding song is a hurried, high-pitched jumble of descending notes ‘weesisee-chizzarizzaree-chichioo…’; at other times calls ‘prouee, tweep, tweep’. Alarm note is a piping ‘tee-tee-tee…’. Songs and calls very similar to those of [Wailing Cisticola]. A lively species found in coastal fynbos, scrub and grass on estuarine flats, montane foothills, Karoo and semi-desert western regions.

Quick Facts

Bird Family

Small, closely similar, brown grass-warblers. There are often subtle differences between sexes and breeding and non-breeding plumages; tail lengths differ also. They are best identified by song, habitat preference and behaviour, as plumage differences are difficult to identify in the field. Territorial behaviour common to the very small ‘cloud' cisticolas is an aerial cruise accompanied by continuous singing by the males. They rise high into the air with rapidly whirring wings, often out of sight, and then cruise about singing, while some species make audible wing-snaps. The descent is a near-vertical plunge, but they check just above the grass and fly level briefly before dropping down. In some species the descent is accompanied by wing-snaps. (Cf. 'cloud' cisticolas: Pale-crowned, Zitting, Desert, Cloud and Wing-snapping Cisticolas.)