Cisticola brachypterus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The short-winged cisticola (Cisticola brachypterus), also known as the siffling cisticola, is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The short-winged cisticola resembles the neddicky, a similar member of the genus Cisticola, but lacks the rufous crown with a shorter tail and clear buff underparts. The short-winged cisticola was formally described in 1870 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe based on a specimen collected near the Volta River in Ghana and sent to him by the colonial administrator Herbert Taylor Ussher. Sharpe coined the binomial name Drymoeca brachyptera where the specific epithet is from Ancient Greek βραχυπτερος/brakhupteros meaning "short-winged", from βραχυς/brakhus meaning "short" and -πτερος/'-pteros' meaning "-winged". The short-winged cisticola... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Nyungwe National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 4 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 7 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 8 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 9 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 10 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Siffling Cisticola sighting in Kidepo Valley National Park on a given day, based on 50 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 121st most-seen of the 332 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and September
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Siffling Cisticola in Kidepo Valley National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February and December, the lowest months. Those are among Kidepo Valley National Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against 10 mm in February. April and May have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Siffling 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.
Among the best
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Siffling Cisticola sightings, Kidepo Valley National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 20%).
Same genus: Cisticola
The closest relatives of the Siffling Cisticola that you can see in Kidepo Valley National Park (genus Cisticola, Cisticolas) are Croaking Cisticola (about 50%), Rattling Cisticola (about 50%) and Foxy Cisticola (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Siffling Cisticola is recorded against all the birds logged in Kidepo Valley National Park (50 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.
