Camaroptera brachyura
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The green-backed camaroptera (Camaroptera brachyura), also known as the bleating camaroptera, is a small bird in the family Cisticolidae. This bird is a resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Recent studies suggest this species and the grey-backed camaroptera may be the same species.
This skulking passerine is typically found low in dense cover. The green-backed camaroptera binds large leaves together low in a bush and builds a grass nest within the leaves. The normal clutch is two or three eggs. These 11.5 cm long warblers have green upperparts. The wings are olive and the underparts whitish grey. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are paler yellow on the breast.
Like most members in the group, green-backed camaroptera is insectivorous. The green-backed camaroptera was described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1821 under the binomial name Sylvia brachyura. The type locality is the Cape of Good Hope. The specific epithet brachyura is from the Ancient Greek brakhus for "short" and -ouros for "-tailed".
There are five subspecies: Camaroptera brachyura pileata Reichenow, 1891 – southeast Kenya to southeast Tanzania Camaroptera brachyura fugglescouchmani Moreau, 1939 – northeast Zambia, north Malawi and east Tanzania Camaroptera brachyura bororensis Gunning & Roberts, 1911 – south Tanzania, south Malawi and north Mozambique
Camaroptera brachyura constans Clancey, 1952 – southeast Zimbabwe, south Mozambique and northeast South Africa Camaroptera brachyura brachyura (Vieillot, 1821) – south and east South Africa Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 2 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 5 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Yaoundé | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | |
| 7 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 9 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 10 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Green-backed Camaroptera sighting in Lagos on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 59th most-seen of the 72 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.
March
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Green-backed Camaroptera in Lagos on a given day, against under 5% in May, July, October and December–February, the lowest months. That is one of Lagos's driest months, with about 70 mm of rain against 250 mm in September. June, August–September and November have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Green-backed Camaroptera sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
20th of 26
Of the 26 cities where we can rate Green-backed Camaroptera sightings, Lagos ranks 20th at about 10%. The best odds are in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 70%), Mombasa (Kenya, about 60%) and Kampala (Uganda, about 50%).
Same family: Cisticolidae
The closest relatives of the Green-backed Camaroptera that you can see in Lagos (family Cisticolidae, Cisticolas and Allies) are Winding Cisticola (about 10%), Oriole Warbler (about 10%) 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 Green-backed Camaroptera is recorded against all the birds logged in Lagos (6 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.
