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Singing Cisticola | Cisticola cantans
Witbrauwgraszanger | Cistícola Cantor
The Singing Cisticola is a cisticola of rank growth, bracken and tall grass at the edges of forest and woodland in the hills and mountains of the eastern part of the region, with a rufous crown and rufous wing panel on a plain grey-brown back. It sings short, clear whistled phrases from a bush or tall stem and has no display flight. Within the region it is confined to the north-east, from Zambia and Malawi to eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Voice
The song is a short, clear, whistled phrase of two or three notes, chew-chee or wee-chew, often repeated and at times extended to chi-chiwee, sung from a bush or tall stem. Pairs sometimes duet. The alarm is a dry chrrr or repeated tuk. It sings mainly in the rains, but can be heard occasionally all year.
Recording: Bram Piot — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–14 cm, a medium-sized cisticola with a rather short tail. In breeding plumage the crown is warm rufous, sharply set off against the plain grey-brown, almost unstreaked mantle and back. The edges of the flight feathers are bright rufous and form a clear wing panel. The lores and a short supercilium are off-white, giving the species a paler face; the ear coverts are grey-brown. The underparts are white, with a buff wash on breast and flanks. The tail is grey-brown with a dark subterminal mark and pale tip. Outside the breeding season the back is warmer brown with faint dark streaks and the tail longer, but cap and wing panel stay rufous. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Red-Faced Cisticola Cisticola erythrops has a rufous face, no rufous cap or wing panel, and lives low down near water. Rattling Cisticola Cisticola chiniana has a streaked back and rattles in drier savanna. Neddicky Cisticola fulvicapilla is smaller, has a rufous crown but no wing panel, and sings a monotonous, fast tsip-tsip-tsip. Trilling Cisticola Cisticola woosnami has an unstreaked back but a darker crown and no wing panel, and lives in miombo with a trilling song. Red-Winged Prinia Prinia erythroptera has a rufous wing panel but a much longer tail and a grey crown. A rufous cap plus rufous wing panel on an unstreaked back, and the whistled song, point to Singing Cisticola.
Habitat
Rank growth at the edges of forest and woodland: tall grass, bracken, bramble thickets, scrub along streams, abandoned fields and overgrown gardens, especially on slopes in hill and mountain country up to about 2000 m. It forages low in the vegetation for insects, in pairs.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region in the north-east: in Zambia mainly in the north and east (the northern plateau and Muchinga escarpment), over much of Malawi, in central and northern Mozambique (including Manica and the slopes of Gorongosa) and in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe (Nyanga, Vumba, Chimanimani). Beyond the region from Senegal east across the savanna belt to Ethiopia and south through East Africa to Tanzania.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Year-round; search the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe, for example the Vumba and around Nyanga, or the Zomba plateau in Malawi. Walk a rank forest edge or bracken slope and listen for the clear two- or three-note whistled phrase of a bird on a bush top. Watch for the rufous wing panel as it flies off, and for the lack of streaking on the back.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common over a large range and one of the few cisticolas that is at home in abandoned fields, overgrown gardens and other man-disturbed forest edges.
Scientific name
Cisticola cantans | (Heuglin, 1869)
Heuglin described the species in 1869 as Drymoeca cantans; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Cisticola was introduced in 1829 by Kaup. Cisticola combines the Ancient Greek kisthos 'rock-rose' with the Latin colere 'to dwell'. cantans is Latin for 'singing', for the loud, varied song. The specimen the first description was based on came from Ethiopia; the type is from Gondar.