Cisticola erythrops
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The red-faced cisticola (Cisticola erythrops) is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is widely present across sub-Saharan Africa (rare in southern Africa). Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland and swamps.
The red-faced cisticola was formally described in 1857 by the German ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub under the binomial name Drymoeca erythrops based on a specimen collected near Calabar in Nigeria. The specific epithet erythrops combines the Ancient Greek ερυθρος/eruthros meaning "red" with ωψ/ōps meaning "eye" or "face". The red-faced cisticola is now one of 53 species placed in the genus Cisticola that was introduced in 1829 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup.
Six subspecies are recognised: Cisticola erythrops erythrops (Hartlaub, 1857) – Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia to Central African Republic, Congo and Gabon Cisticola erythrops pyrrhomitra Reichenow, 1916 – southeast Sudan and Ethiopia
Cisticola erythrops niloticus Madarász, G, 1914 – central Sudan Cisticola erythrops sylvia Reichenow, 1904 – northeast DR Congo and south Sudan to Kenya and central Tanzania Cisticola erythrops nyasa Lynes... Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-faced Cisticola sighting in Dar es-Salaam on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 102nd most-seen of the 138 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-faced Cisticola in Dar es-Salaam on a given day, against under 5% in February–April, June–July and November–December, the lowest months. That is one of Dar es-Salaam's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 260 mm in April.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-faced Cisticola sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 10
Of the 10 cities where we can rate Red-faced Cisticola sightings, Dar es-Salaam ranks 6th at about 10%. The best odds are in Yaoundé (Cameroon, about 30%), Nairobi (Kenya, about 20%) and Harare (Zimbabwe, about 20%).
Same genus: Cisticola
The closest relatives of the Red-faced Cisticola that you can see in Dar es-Salaam (genus Cisticola, Cisticolas) are Rattling Cisticola (about 30%) and Coastal Cisticola (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-faced Cisticola is recorded against all the birds logged in Dar es-Salaam (10 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.
