Red-faced cisticola

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Red-faced cisticola (Cisticola erythrops) is a small bird in the Cisticolidae family. It is found across much of sub-Saharan Africa, but is rare in southern Africa. Its natural home is subtropical or tropical lowland grasslands and swamps that flood seasonally. The species was first described in 1857 by German ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub, who named it Drymoeca erythrops from a specimen collected near Calabar, Nigeria. The name erythrops means "red face" in Greek. Today it is placed in the genus Cisticola, which has about 53 species. There are six subspecies, including C. e. lepe from Angola (and possibly southeast Democratic Republic of Congo), which is sometimes treated as a separate species. In South Africa you might hear its song near rivers, for example near the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga, and songs have been recorded in Limpopo. The red-faced cisticola is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.