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Wakkerstroom area South Africa Oct 22 (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter 49bentley
- Start date
Surely that has a longer tail, clearer rufous head
Bewick
Connoisseur of WTL
Immatures have shorter tails I believe, the red on the face and head seems to significant for cloud or wind-snapping I would have thought.
Edit- wing-snapping does seem like another good possibility however the tail length also seems wrong, from pictures the wing-snapping's tail seems too short in comparison with the cisticola in op's pic.
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Just looking in the sasol app photos and it doesn't show extensive red as we see here for levaillants. It has a photo of a juvenile with even less rufous. Maybe ebird photos will prove me wrong, but I feel jizz is wrong for that species where even juvenile seems more elongate
Not sure what you're deciding on here but I think this bird is a pretty clear Levaillant's. It's much too long-tailed for Wing-snapping or other short-tailed cisticolas. According to Chamberlain, their tail feathers should be shorter than the tertials. The tail feathers here are around 1.5x the length of the tertials, which is better for a long-tailed species. The extensive thick black streaks on the mantle and black centred greater coverts, as well as the fine streaking on the rump and rufous wing panel all point towards Levaillant's. Lots of pictures here:
Levaillant's Cisticola - Cisticola tinniens - Media Search - Macaulay Library and eBird
Explore millions of photos, audio recordings, and videos of birds and other animals; powered by Macaulay Library and eBird. The Macaulay Library collects, archives, and distributes wildlife media for research, education, and conservation.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Is Grey-backed in range?
Bewick
Connoisseur of WTL
Does not seem so according to the Ebird map.
Think that one's not so dark on the back judging by photos. Also don't remember it being
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Assume ID is correct, it looks fine to me.
grey backed cisticola - Bing
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You can see back is greyer, paler than the op picAssume ID is correct, it looks fine to me.
grey backed cisticola - Bing
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Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
I'm leaning towards Levaillant's, bill colour and structure, very pale underparts, why does it have white feather edges on the back?
Bewick
Connoisseur of WTL
Agreed, cloud-snapping would have buff feather edges on the back- while op's bird has pale/white feather edges on the back.
The proportions I gave from Chamberlain are averages. On the same page there's a table showing how variable in length cisticola tails can be, particularly in the longer tailed species such as Levaillant's. Wing-snapping is mentioned as the shortest tailed species, on average.
There's also the ebird comment that tail length is longer in the non-breeding season (presumably short now)
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
+1 for Levaillant's. Wailing might be worth considering if it's in the area, but my first thought was Levaillant's
