Neddicky

Cisticola fulvicapilla

Thickets. Above plain dark brown except for rusty cap; below blue-grey (southern and eastern regions); buffy elsewhere

Not Endemic

Description

Common resident. Sexes are alike; immature dull. Plain-backed like [Short-winged Cisticola] but larger and longer-tailed, the cap rufous. Closer in size to the ‘cloud’ cisticolas on, but with longer tail and plain mantle. Southern and eastern races (a) have blue-grey underparts and a pure, whistled song ‘fee-fee-fee-fee…’. Northern races (b) are browner below and utter a more scratchy ‘chirri-chirri-chirri…’. In the rainy season sings for long periods from an exposed high perch. The alarm call is a rapid tinkling by several birds ‘ticki-ticki-ticki-ticki-ticki’ (sounds like a fingernail drawn across the teeth of a comb) while flitting from bush to bush. Occurs in pairs and family parties, frequenting the lower stratum: (a) in montane and fynbos regions, (b) in grassy woodlands and thornveld thickets.

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.)