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 Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 199th most-seen of the 233 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.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-faced Cisticola in Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, August–September and November, the lowest months. That is one of Gonarezhou National Park's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 150 mm in January. March–April, June and December–January have too few records to rate.
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.
11th of 30
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Red-faced Cisticola sightings, Gonarezhou National Park ranks 11th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 30%), Kruger National Park (South Africa, about 20%) and Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda, about 10%).
Same genus: Cisticola
The closest relatives of the Red-faced Cisticola that you can see in Gonarezhou National Park (genus Cisticola, Cisticolas) are Rattling 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-faced Cisticola is recorded against all the birds logged in Gonarezhou National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
