Scientific name: Cisticola subruficapilla
The grey-backed cisticola is a small, 13–14 cm long, vocal, dull-coloured bird with a dark rufous crown to its reddish head. It has a rufous panel in the folded wing. The grey bill is short and straight, and the feet and legs are pinkish-brown. The southern form, "grey-backed cisticola" proper, found in southern Namibia and South Africa has a grey back heavily streaked with black. Its underparts are greyish white. Although cisticolas can be very similar in plumage, this greyish subspecies is quite distinctive. The northern subspecies has a brown back heavily streaked with black and cold buff underparts.
Near-endemic to southern Africa, occurring from South Africa through Namibia to extreme south-western Angola. It generally prefers fynbos, renosterveld and Karoo scrub, occasionally moving into thickets of alien plants, such as Jackson willow (Acacia saligna) and Rooikrans (Acacia cyclops).
It mainly eats insects, gleaning them from the undergrowth and bare soil.
