Four Simple Steps to Identifying Cisticolas

Let’s be honest, LBJs can be very tricky to identify! This is not only true for newer birders, but also for experienced birders at times. Even when we think we know what we are doing, we will still sometimes be stumped by a bird we see.

What I thought I would do is put together a simple guide to help you identify cisticolas better. You will still need to use your field guide or app alongside this guide, but I am confident that if you follow the steps I give you, you will improve your cisticola identification skills.

This will be simple and explained in easy terms. As your identification skills improve, you may not go from step one to four every time, but these steps have helped me over the years to get better at identifying this tricky group of birds.

So, let’s dive into it.

Zitting Cisticola - Photo by Adam Cruickshank

Step one is simple: know WHAT you are looking at.

This might seem like a step that should be skipped, but if you are looking at a prinia, for example, and think it is a cisticola, you will never arrive at the correct identification. The foundation of these steps is making sure that you are actually looking at a cisticola.

I encourage you to get Faansie's LBJ Book, as Faansie Peacock covers this in great detail, but here are a few things to look out for.

There are 15 cisticola species in South Africa. Cisticolas are small brown insectivorous birds with a few distinct features to look out for. They often have rufous or streaked brown crowns, black sub-terminal spots on the tail feathers, and calling males show a black gape.

Take some time to page through a field guide or photos online to get a feel for what cisticolas look like.

Step two: know WHERE you are.

This is important because it immediately helps make the list of possible species smaller.

Firstly, where are you in the country or region? Take a look in your field guide or app and see which cisticolas occur in your area. Immediately the list becomes smaller.

For example, using my Roberts Field Guide, I can see that if I was trying to identify cisticolas in the Cape Town area, I could remove Red-faced, Lazy, Rattling, Tinkling, Croaking, Wailing, Rufous-winged, Desert, Pale-crowned, and Wing-snapping Cisticola from the list of possibilities. That leaves only five possible species in the area.

Secondly, you can narrow the list down even more by looking at habitat. This is one of the most important things for any newer birder to learn: how to understand and read habitat. Different cisticola species are associated with different habitats.

Faansie’s LBJ book notes the following about where different cisticola species are commonly found. Again, there is much more detail in the book, so if you do not have a copy yet, I really encourage you to get one.

In grassland and upland landscapes:

1. Short upland grassland – Wing-snapping and Cloud Cisticola

2. Moist depressions – Pale-crowned and Zitting Cisticola

3. Grassy slopes with scrub and rocks – Wailing Cisticola and Neddicky

4. Scrub – Grey-backed and Cloud Cisticolae) Grassland with scattered shrubs and trees – Desert and Croaking Cisticola

5. Open grassland – Zitting, Desert, Wing-snapping, Cloud, and Pale-crowned Cisticola

6. Tall damp grassland – Zitting and Pale-crowned Cisticola

7. Wetlands and streamside vegetation – Levaillant’s Cisticola

   
   

Woodland and lowland landscapes:

1. Rocky slopes – Lazy Cisticola

2. Forest edge – Lazy Cisticola

3. Sparse woodland, ecotones, and scrub – Neddicky and Croaking Cisticola

4. Bushveld and savanna – Neddicky and Rattling Cisticola

5. Dry grassland – Desert Cisticola

6. Tall dead trees – Neddicky

7. Lush tropical thickets – Red-faced Cisticola

8. Floodplains – Zitting, Rufous-winged, and Croaking Cisticola

9. Riverine bush, reeds, and scrub – Red-faced Cisticola

10. Wetlands and swamps – Rufous-winged Cisticola

    
    

By combining distribution and habitat, you will get a much more accurate picture of which cisticolas could be in the area you are birding. This immediately makes the process of identifying them much easier.

Neddicky - Photo by Adam Cruickshank

Step three: listen to the bird’s call.

Many people will tell you that this is the easiest way to identify cisticolas and should be the first step in the process. But here lies the problem. You listen to the call and when you want to work out what it is, you have to go through all 15 cisticolas on your app, unless you find it early on.

Knowing where you are means the list of possible species is already smaller. This means you don’t need to go through the whole list of species found in the country.

More importantly, this helps with learning calls. When birding your local area, or even planning a trip, you can identify which cisticola species are possible and take the time to learn only those.

To learn calls, you can use a bird app. I find the Firefinch app the best for learning calls, but most of the apps are pretty good. Another great tool is the Birds of the World website, which is free for South Africans. There are hundreds of recordings of species that you can listen to while preparing. This will help you learn not only the common calls, but also more unusual calls that may not be on the apps.

When listening to calls in the field, there are a few things you can do to make it easier. Firstly, listen carefully. If possible, close your eyes and focus on the call. Try to describe the call in a way that will help you remember it. This doesn’t have to be how others hear it. It just needs to be how you hear it.

Another game changer is recording calls. When you record the calls and listen to them again, it becomes much easier to remember them.

This will help you not only identify what you hear, but also remember it for the future.

Step four: look carefully at the bird.

Yes, cisticolas are plain and a lot more drab than many other species, but when you look carefully, you will start to notice that they do have features that make them stand out from each other. When you know what to look for, it becomes easier to identify them in the field. To be honest, with enough practice, this is much easier than most people think.

There are two key things to look out for.

Firstly, how long is the tail?

You want to work out if the bird is short-tailed or long-tailed. If the length of the tail is shorter than the length of the body, the bird is short-tailed and belongs to the short-tailed cisticolas. If the tail is longer than, or roughly equal to, the length of the body, then the bird belongs to the long-tailed cisticolas. But remember, cisticolas can have shorter tails when breeding.

Secondly, look at the bird’s back. Does it have a plain or streaky back? If the back is streaky, what colour is it? Grey, black, or brown?

These two questions will often help you know what to look for visually. Remember, if you followed step two, your list is already shorter.

Then you simply put the features together:

Short-tailed cisticolas:

1. Streaky back – Zitting, Desert, Wing-snapping, and Pale-crowned Cisticola

2. Plain back – Neddicky

Long-tailed cisticolas:

1. Plain back – Lazy and Red-faced Cisticola

2. Streaky back with a grey back – Wailing and Grey-backed Cisticola

3. Streaky back with a black back – Levaillant’s and Rufous-winged Cisticola

4. Streaky back with a brown back – Rattling, Croaking, and Tinkling Cisticola

Go through the four steps and watch how much easier it becomes to identify this tricky group of birds.