Cisticola brachypterus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Siffling Cisticola sighting in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 505th most-seen of the 519 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Siffling Cisticola in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
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.
10th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Siffling Cisticola sightings, Ngorongoro Conservation Area ranks 10th at under 5%. The best odds are in Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 20%), Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 20%) and Nyungwe National Park (Rwanda, about 10%).
Same genus: Cisticola
The closest relatives of the Siffling Cisticola that you can see in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (genus Cisticola, Cisticolas) are Rattling Cisticola (about 20%), Winding Cisticola (about 20%) and Hunter's Cisticola (about 10%), 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 Ngorongoro Conservation Area (5 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.
