Yes cisticolas are under-reported and not just in the breeding season.
They are a wet grassland bird and exceptionally wary and unobtrusive
outside breeding season when the male calls constantly from the tops of
reeds and grasses. They are also dull coloured like dry grass except in
the breeding season. I reported them breeding here this spring.
I am fortunate to back onto the grasses and reeds which border Ginninderra
Creek and I have been watching them for years. For 8 or 9 months of the
year you have to be very patient to see or hear one at all but they are
there. If observers don¹t choose to go and patiently wait in wet
grassland, they won¹t ever see them at all, let alone when breeding.
If the male in breeding plumage screeching from the top of a grass stalk
counts as display, then Geoffrey Dabb came here with me in Spring and took
a very good photo. If you troll back through the COG chatline you can find
it - no don¹t bother, the link is
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds/2013-10/msg
00438.html.
Cheers
John
On 24/01/2014 8:39 am, "Bill & Raelene" <>
wrote:
>The records for cisticolas breeding for the last 30 years seem to
>indicate undereporting/ under reporting/underreporting. How is it that
>so many experienced birders are missing them? I think I have seen
>display but am not sure. Are there any photos of display? What can
>account for this deficit?
>Bill Graham
>
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