Cisticola subruficapilla
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The grey-backed cisticola or red-headed cisticola (Cisticola subruficapilla) is a small passerine bird. This cisticola is a resident breeder in southernmost Angola, Namibia and western South Africa. The grey-backed cisticola is a very common bird of coastal fynbos, karoo shrub and grassy areas on estuarine flats.
The grey-backed cisticola is a small, 13–14 cm long, vocal, dull-coloured bird with a dark rufous crown to its reddish head. It has a rufous panel in the folded wing. The grey bill is short and straight, and the feet and legs are pinkish-brown. The eye is light brown.
The southern form, "grey-backed cisticola" proper, found in southern Namibia and South Africa has a grey back heavily streaked with black. Its underparts are greyish white. Although cisticolas can be very similar in plumage, this greyish subspecies is quite distinctive. The northern subspecies has a brown back heavily streaked with black and cold buff underparts. It is very similar to the wailing cisticola, Cisticola lais, of eastern South Africa, but that species has warmer buff underparts and does not overlap in range.
The sexes are similar, but juvenile birds are duller with a yellow face... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Namib-Naukluft National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 5 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red-headed Cisticola sighting in Cape Town on a given day, based on 48 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 138th most-seen of the 196 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red-headed Cisticola in Cape Town on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-headed Cisticola sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Cape Town, in our data
Cape Town is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Red-headed Cisticola sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Cisticola
The closest relatives of the Red-headed Cisticola that you can see in Cape Town (genus Cisticola, Cisticolas) are Levaillant's Cisticola (about 30%) and Zitting Cisticola (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-headed Cisticola is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Town (48 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
