Rattling Cisticola

Cisticola chiniana

Bushveld. Buff and dark brown upperparts; pale underparts. Distinctive rattle at end of song; often sings from top of bush.

Not Endemic

Description

Very common resident. A robust cisticola with few distinguishing features; seasonal differences slight. Best told by habitat, behaviour and song. Male’s characteristic song, with slight locality differences, is ‘chi chi chi ch-r-r-r-r-r’, the last syllable with a distinct rattle. When alarmed calls a continuing ‘cheer, cheer, cheer…’. The common bushveld cisticola that can be heard, and seen, singing for much of the year from the top of a bush. Also occurs in thornveld and coastal bush. Forages low down in tangled grass and bush.

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.)