Camaroptera brachyura
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% 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 |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Green-backed Camaroptera sighting in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, based on 54 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 40th most-seen of the 272 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, June and November
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Green-backed Camaroptera in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, against about 20% in February, the lowest month. May has 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.
17th of 50
Of the 50 parks where we can rate Green-backed Camaroptera sightings, Mkomazi National Park ranks 17th at about 30%. The best odds are in Waterberg Plateau Park (Namibia, about 70%), Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 50%) and iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Cisticolidae
The closest relatives of the Green-backed Camaroptera that you can see in Mkomazi National Park (family Cisticolidae, Cisticolas and Allies) are Rattling Cisticola (about 40%), Gray Wren-Warbler (about 40%) and Yellow-breasted Apalis (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 Mkomazi National Park (54 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.
