Cisticola eximius
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The black-backed cisticola or black-necked cisticola (Cisticola eximius) is a species of passerine bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is found in Burkina Faso, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland and subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland. The black-backed cisticola was described by the German explorer and ornithologist Theodor von Heuglin in 1869 from a specimen collected near the Bahr el Ghazal River in South Sudan. He coined the binomial name Drymoeca eximia. The specific epithet eximius is the Latin for "select" or "distinguished". The species is now placed in the genus Cisticola which was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829.
Three subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-necked Cisticola sighting in Serengeti National Park on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 433rd most-seen of the 469 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 Black-necked Cisticola in Serengeti National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-necked 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 3 parks where we can rate Black-necked Cisticola sightings, Serengeti National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, under 5%) and Masai Mara National Reserve (Kenya, under 5%).
Same genus: Cisticola
The closest relatives of the Black-necked Cisticola that you can see in Serengeti National Park (genus Cisticola, Cisticolas) are Rattling Cisticola (about 50%), Zitting Cisticola (about 20%) and Winding Cisticola (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-necked Cisticola is recorded against all the birds logged in Serengeti National Park (10 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.
