Camaroptera brachyura
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Green-backed Camaroptera sighting in iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, based on 1,049 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 5th most-seen of the 351 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Green-backed Camaroptera in iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, against about 30% in March and June, the lowest months.
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.
3rd of 50
Of the 50 parks where we can rate Green-backed Camaroptera sightings, iSimangaliso Wetland Park ranks 3rd at about 50%. The best odds are in Waterberg Plateau Park (Namibia, about 70%) and Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Cisticolidae
The closest relatives of the Green-backed Camaroptera that you can see in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (family Cisticolidae, Cisticolas and Allies) are Rudd's Apalis (about 40%), Yellow-breasted Apalis (about 40%) and Rattling Cisticola (about 30%), 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 iSimangaliso Wetland Park (1,049 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.
