Slender-tailed Cisticola Cisticola melanurus Scientific name definitions

10–11 cm; 8–10 g. A fairly small, slender, apalis-like cisticola with rufous crown, plain back, and long, slender, graduated black tail with narrow rectrices. Male breeding has lores, eyering and narrow stripe behind eye creamy buff, cheek grey-brown; crown rufous, merging into dark grey-brown upperparts; flight-feathers and greater upper­wing-coverts dark grey-brown with rufous margins; tail glossy black with narrow brown margins, outer web of outermost rectrix whitish; buffy below, paler on throat and central belly; iris pale brown; bill dark brown above, pinkish below; legs pink. Non-breeding male is brighter above, reducing contrast between crown and back. Distinguished from C. fulvicapilla and C. angusticauda by slightly longer, glossy black tail and less capped appearance, white-edged outer tail feather, tiny outermost primary (projecting only 6 mm). Female is slightly smaller than male, perhaps more rufous above, and has grey (not white) outer web of outermost rectrix. Juvenile is similar to the adults, although less brightly coloured; upperparts more uniform, with the warm brown head grading into the brown mantle and back, and grey-brown wings (1 Mills, M.S.L., Melo, M. and Vaz, A. (2011). Black-tailed Cisticola Cisticola melanurus in eastern Angola: behavioural notes and the first photographs and sound-recordings. Bull. Afr. Bird Club. 18(2): 193–198. Close ).

NE Angola and SE DRCongo.

Confined to Zambezian biome; occurs in miombo (Brachystegia) woodland, often near clearings or more open areas, but not dependent on a grassy ground cover.

Presumably mostly resident.

Diet mainly insects. Forages in canopy of trees, gleaning foliage like an apalis; sometimes ventures lower down in trees and bushes. Observed to forage in company with hyliotas (Hyliota) and eremomelas (Eremomela).

Song, various short burry phrases, at intervals of 1–6 s and usually lasting at least 15 s; contact calls, a soft, weak ‘seep’ and sometimes a sharper ‘chip’; also a clicking, wing-snapping sound made in flight (1 Mills, M.S.L., Melo, M. and Vaz, A. (2011). Black-tailed Cisticola Cisticola melanurus in eastern Angola: behavioural notes and the first photographs and sound-recordings. Bull. Afr. Bird Club. 18(2): 193–198. Close ).

In Angola, a female with oviduct egg in Jan, and a group 6–8 birds, perhaps a breeding pair with several young, in Jul (1 Mills, M.S.L., Melo, M. and Vaz, A. (2011). Black-tailed Cisticola Cisticola melanurus in eastern Angola: behavioural notes and the first photographs and sound-recordings. Bull. Afr. Bird Club. 18(2): 193–198. Close ). No further information.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Data Deficient. A poorly known cisticolid, confined to NE Angola and adjacent DRCongo, both of which areas are difficult of access owing to recent political upheavals and civil wars. A pair was seen in N Angola in Feb 2005, the first observed in the country since 1970s (when the civil war started) (2 Sinclair, I., Camberlain, D., Chamberlain, M. and vaz Pinto, P. (2007). Observations of three little-known bird species in northern Angola. Bulletin of the African Bird Club. 14(1): 55-56. Close ), and some 8–10 were briefly studied in E Angola in July 2010 (1 Mills, M.S.L., Melo, M. and Vaz, A. (2011). Black-tailed Cisticola Cisticola melanurus in eastern Angola: behavioural notes and the first photographs and sound-recordings. Bull. Afr. Bird Club. 18(2): 193–198. Close ). Uncommon. Threats unknown, but may be affected by habitat destruction. Lack of information precludes a robust assessment of its conservation status. Information urgently needed on distribution, abundance and ecology (3 Butchart, S. H. M. (2007). Birds to find: a review of ‘lost’, obscure and poorly known African bird species. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 14(2):139–157. Close ).