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Zitting Cisticola (Cisticola juncidis)

The Zitting Cisticola is our only representative of a group of small warblers that are found mainly in the tropics, and it brings with it quite an exotic lifestyle. It is, for example, highly polygamous, and if a male Zitting Cisticola is unable to furnish himself with at least four female mates in an average year, he would consider himself a bit of a failure. Acquiring just a single mate is not up to standard; it is simply polygamy gone wrong. The average breeding male Zitting Cisticola sires between 10 and 16.5 fledglings every season.

To attract females the male performs a song-flight of unrelenting tedium. Taking to the air, it flies widely around its territory and beyond (sometimes as far as 1 km), often describing a wide circle. En route it follows an undulating course, bouncing up and down as if attached to a piece of elastic. On its way up to the highest point of each swing it sings “zit”, and when it reaches the same point on its next swing it goes “zit” again, and so on, ad nauseam. The name is appropriate enough, therefore, but that does not make listening to a Zitting Cisticola any more interesting.

Male Zitting Cisticolas have more than just themselves to offer; they are also keen to show a prospective female a nest – or, at least the beginnings of one, the so-called “courtship nest”. A female approaching the territory is introduced to its owner by the Pendulum Flight, a series of swoops towards her from the side. If she maintains interest the male will then switch to a more direct Zigzag Flight, indicating the nest’s position, and alternate this with the Pendulum Flight from time to time as she hops toward the nest. Finally, once she reaches the goal the male switches to flying in horizontal circles. The female’s acceptance of nest and male is usually signalled by her crossing the threshold and entering it.

A Zitting Cisticola nest is highly unusual. It is roughly bottle shaped, with the entrance at the top. It is built within the close-knit vertical stems of a clump of grass, and is usually fixed between 10 cm and 50 cm above ground. Construction involves weaving grass leaves together using cobwebs, and the bird will actually make holes in leaves with its bill so that it can pass gossamer cords through and sew them together. The male makes the outer part, and then the female lines it with more cobwebs, grass-flowers and plant down. The resulting structure may be 20 cm tall.

The Zitting Cisticola is very much a bird of grassy places and low growth, occurring, for example, in pastureland, crops and marshes. It is primarily found in the Mediterranean, but in recent years has spread north along the Atlantic coast of France, where its limit is set wherever a region experiences more than 15 days of frost per winter. The population here fluctuates greatly, but its mere presence there is impressive for a bird that is mainly found in very hot places indeed.