Whistling Cisticola

About the Whistling Cisticola

The whistling cisticola (Cisticola lateralis) is a species of bird in the Cisticolidae family. It is native to the African tropical rainforest and adjacent areas. Its natural habitats include subtropical or tropical dry forests, dry savanna, and moist savanna.

The whistling cisticola was formally described in 1843 by the British zoologist and collector Louis Fraser under the binomial name Drymoica lateralis based on a specimen collected near Cape Palmas in the south of Liberia. The specific epithet lateralis is Latin meaning "of the side" or "lateral". The whistling cisticola is now one of 53 species placed in the genus Cisticola that was introduced in 1829 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup.

Three subspecies are recognised: C. l. lateralis (Fraser, 1843) – Senegal and Gambia to Cameroon C. l. antinorii (Heuglin, 1867) – Central African Republic to west Kenya C. l. modestus (Barboza du Bocage, 1880) – Gabon to north Angola, south DR Congo and north Zambia

The whistling cisticola is a mid-sized bird that has a body length of 13–16 cm with a male weight of 14-21 grams, and female weight of 12-19 grams. A breeding, male cisticola is described to... Wikipedia →