I photographed this non-breeding plumaged cisticola on the circuit through the upper part of Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, south of Johannesburg. It was giving a very high, thin whispery sub-song which consisted of various, different “tsee” notes both from the ground and on the grass stem it flew up to. It didn’t call in the air or display.

Bird lists for the Reserve and correspondents on AfricanBirding suggest cisticolas in the rocky, bare area of the Reserve will be Wing-snapping Cisticola Cisticola ayresii. The SASOL Field Guide says that Cloud Cisticola C. textrix and Wing-snapping are almost identical, but micro-habitat preferences do seem to be enough to name this as Wing-snapping (so-called, incidentally, from the ‘wing-snapping’ display the species gives in summer).

Wing-snapping Cisticola Cisticola ayresii