Cisticola erythrops
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 202 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 128th most-seen of the 434 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–May and August–September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-faced Cisticola in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, against about 10% in June–July and October–March, the lowest months. Those are among Queen Elizabeth National Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in January.
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.
3rd of 30
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Red-faced Cisticola sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 30%) and Kruger National Park (South Africa, about 20%).
Same genus: Cisticola
The closest relatives of the Red-faced Cisticola that you can see in Queen Elizabeth National Park (genus Cisticola, Cisticolas) are Zitting Cisticola (about 30%), Croaking Cisticola (about 20%) and Trilling Cisticola (about 20%), 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 Queen Elizabeth National Park (202 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.
