About Cisticola chiniana (A.Smith, 1843)
The rattling cisticola, with the scientific name Cisticola chiniana, is a bird species belonging to the family Cisticolidae. It is native to regions of Africa south of the equator and parts of East Africa. This species ranges from common to abundant in open savanna and scrubland habitats, and can be found in arid, moist, or upland areas. It is particularly easy to notice during summer, because of its loud, strident and repetitive call notes that it gives while positioned on prominent perches. This species is distributed across Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, the DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitat includes arid, mesic, or moist savannas and woodland, which are often dominated by thorn trees or thorn shrubs such as Dichrostachys. It is also commonly found in miombo and mopane woodland, and is one of the most common bird species on the Mozambican coastal plain. It also occurs in the Eastern Highlands and East African uplands at elevations below 2,000 m. It additionally uses a number of ecotone habitats, including cultivation edges, the fringes of dense woodland, and the woodland areas fringing the Okavango delta. The tinkling cisticola replaces the rattling cisticola in stunted broad-leaved woodland and dry deciduous woodland growing on sandy substrates. Various other Cisticola species replace it in marshy habitats. It co-occurs alongside multiple different Prinia species.
