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Winding Cisticola | Cisticola marginatus
Heuglins graszanger | Cistícola del Nilo
The Winding Cisticola is a widespread wetland cisticola of tropical Africa that reaches the area of this guide only at its northern edge. After the old Winding Cisticola complex was split into several species, this is the northern form; in southern Africa it is replaced by Luapula Cisticola and Rufous-Winged Cisticola.
Voice
A varied song of buzzing, rasping notes and quick trills, such as zrrreeeee and tee-tee-tee-trrrr, from a reed stem or grass stalk. It calls a loud chwee; the alarm is a scolding chrrrr.
Recording: Jonathan Onongo — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–14 cm. In breeding plumage a rufous-brown crown, a grey back with broad black streaks, a bright rufous wing panel and white underparts with a greyish or buff wash on the flanks. The tail is grey-brown with a black band before the pale tips. In non-breeding plumage browner and warmer buff, with a streaked crown and a longer tail. The sexes are alike, the male larger. The differences from Luapula and Rufous-Winged Cisticolas are hardly visible in the field.
Confusion species
Luapula Cisticola Cisticola luapula and Rufous-Winged Cisticola Cisticola galactotes are almost impossible to separate from Winding Cisticola in the field; the locality is the most important feature, and in border zones a record often remains uncertain. Chirping Cisticola Cisticola pipiens is larger, longer-tailed and browner on the back, with a chirping song. Levaillant's Cisticola Cisticola tinniens has a bright rufous tail and lives in upland vleis. Zitting Cisticola Cisticola juncidis is smaller, short-tailed and sings in song flight.
Habitat
Marshes, reedbeds, papyrus and sedge beds, rank grass along lakes and rivers, and wet cultivation such as rice fields. Usually in pairs low in the vegetation.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region only at the northern edge: in northern and north-eastern Zambia (subspecies suahelicus), possibly also in northern Malawi and Mozambique, and in north-western Angola (subspecies amphilectus). The boundary with Luapula and Rufous-Winged Cisticolas is not precisely known and differs between taxonomic treatments. Beyond the region widespread from Senegal east through the Sahel to South Sudan and Uganda, and south through Kenya, Tanzania and DR Congo.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Present all year; within the region knowledge of range matters more than any field mark. Search the swamps of northern Zambia along lakes and rivers for a singing cisticola on a reed stem, and note the locality precisely. Sound recordings help support a later identification.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common over a very large range in tropical Africa. Locally habitat is lost to drainage and conversion of wetlands to farmland.
Scientific name
Cisticola marginatus | (Heuglin, 1869)
Heuglin described the species in 1869 as Drymoeca marginata; 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'. marginatus is Latin for 'edged', for the pale-fringed feathers of the back and wings. The specimen the first description was based on came from White Nile, South Sudan.