Red-headed Cisticola

Red-headed Cisticola
Red-headed Cisticola
At Namaqua National Park, Northern Cape, South Africa
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Cisticolidae
Genus: Cisticola
Species: C. subruficapillus
Binomial name
Cisticola subruficapillus
(Smith, 1843)

The Red-headed Cisticola or Grey-backed Cisticola (Cisticola subruficapillus) is a small passerine bird. This cisticola is a resident breeder in southernmost Angola, Namibia and western South Africa.

The Red-headed Cisticola is a very common bird of coastal fynbos, karoo shrub and grassy areas on estuarine flats.

Contents

Description

The Red-headed Cisticola is a small, 13–14 cm long, vocal, dull-coloured bird with a dark rufous crown to its reddish head. It has a rufous panel in the folded wing. The grey bill is short and straight, and the feet and legs are pinkish-brown. The eye is light brown.

The southern form, “Grey-backed Cisticola”, found in southern Namibia and South Africa has a grey back heavily streaked with black. Its underparts are greyish white. Although cisticolas can be very similar in plumage, this greyish subspecies is quite distinctive. The northern subspecies has a brown back heavily streaked with black and cold buff underparts. It is very similar to the Wailing Cisticola, Cisticola lais, of eastern South Africa, but that species has warmer buff underparts and does not overlap in range.

The sexes are similar, but juvenile birds are duller with a yellow face.

The call of the Red-headed Cisticola is a soft prrrrt followed by a sharp wheee phweee.

Behaviour

The Red-headed Cisticola builds a ball-shaped nest with a side entrance from dry grass, cobwebs and felted plant down.

The Red-headed Cisticola It is usually seen in pairs or singly, flitting in a bush or the grass at the base of a tree as it forages for small insects.

Conservation status

This common species has a large range, with an estimated extent of 820,000 km². The population size is believed to be large, and the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

References

  • Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa (Struik 2002) ISBN 1-86872-721-1

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Golden-headed Cisticola — Conservation status Least Concern ( …   Wikipedia

  • Cisticola — C. juncidis Scientific classification Kingdom …   Wikipedia

  • Cisticola — Cisticoles …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Cisticola subruficapilla — Red headed Cisticola Conservation status Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) Scientific classification …   Wikipedia

  • Cisticole — Cisticola Cisticoles …   Wikipédia en Français

  • List of African birds — This list of African birds is a listing of all the bird species known from the continent of Africa. TOCrightNotesThere are over 45 billion different species of birds in Africa.The taxonomy of this list adheres to James Clitorus Birds of the World …   Wikipedia

  • List of birds of Angola — This is a list of the bird species recorded in Angola. The avifauna of Angola includes a total of 983 species, of which 14 are endemic, 1 has been introduced by humans, and 4 are rare or accidental. 20 species are globally threatened.This list s… …   Wikipedia

  • Sibley-Monroe checklist 15 — The Sibley Monroe checklist was a landmark document in the study of birds. It drew on extensive DNA DNA hybridisation studies to reassess the relationships between modern birds. Passeriformes (continued)Sittidae* Sitta europaea Wood Nuthatch *… …   Wikipedia

  • List of birds of South Africa — South Africa is a large country with a range of habitats including tropical and subtropical zones, and as such it has a wide range of birdlife.858 species have been recorded including 31 endemics and nine species introduced by man.The taxonomy of …   Wikipedia

  • List of birds of Namibia — This is a list of the bird species recorded in Namibia. The avifauna of Namibia includes a total of 706 species, of which 1 is endemic, 14 are near endemic, 1 has been introduced by humans, and 35 are rare or accidental. 16 species are globally… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”