From Opus

Photo by CollinBax
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Alternative name: Levaillant's Cisticola

Cisticola tinniens

[edit] Identification

Length 12-15 cm. Grey upperparts heavily streaked with black, rufous panel in the folded wing, buff white supercilium, face and underparts, red cap, russet brown tail, short straight blackish-brown bill with a pinkish base, pink brown feet and legs, light brown eye. Non-breeding adults are browner-backed, and juvenile birds have yellower underparts.

Photo by Mybs
Location: Near Stellenbosch, South Africa

[edit] Distribution

Kenya to South Africa.

[edit] Taxonomy

Cisticola tinniens has five subspecies:^[1]

• C. t. perpullus

• Angola to southern Zaire and north-western Zambia

• C. t. oreophilus

• Highlands of western and central Kenya

• C. t. shiwae

• North-eastern Zambia to south-eastern Zaire and extreme south-western Tanzania

• C. t. dyleffi

• Mountains north-west of Lake Tanganyika

• C. t. tinniens

• Zimbabwe to South Africa

Hockey et al.^[2] recognise a sixth subspecies, C. t. brookei, restricted to south-western South Africa.

[edit] Habitat

Reedbeds, sedges, rank grass, and similar wet habitats usually near rivers or dams.

[edit] Behaviour

It builds a ball-shaped nest with a side entrance from dry grass, cobwebs and felted plant down, placed in a tuft of grass or weeds, which are standing in, or hanging over water. The breeding season varies accross climatic zones; peak breeding times are generally in the rainy season.

The diet includes insects.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Hockey, PAR, WRJ Dean, and PG Ryan, eds. 2005. Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 978-0620340533

• List of references

[edit] External Links