Golden Headed Cisticola and Chats

["Tim Murphy" <>]

I seem to have caused some confusion with the quotation that "cisticolas are dangerous". He meant that they are very difficult to identify correctly.

 

As for the mouth colour of the Golden-headed - I am in Perth where they do not occur - could someone kindly look at the next singing one they see and tell us if the mouth is any particular color. The ones in Africa were pitch black (we seemed to get mainly Rattling) and it was easy to observe when one looked at it.

 

Best regards

 

Tim Murphy

-----Original Message-----
From: [On Behalf Of Tim Murphy
Sent: Wednesday, 15 October 2003 9:23 PM
To: Peter Woodall;
Cc: ;
Subject: RE: [BIRDING-AUS] Golden Headed Cisticola and Chats

I am just back from a very enjoyable tour of east South Africa with Pelican Safaris, and our leader, Mark Caulton, told us that the most dangerous things in Africa have black mouths - the Black Mamba and the Cisticolas. While I didn't see any snakes I saw many singing Cisticolas and the black mouth was quite noticeable - Mark didn't mention if this is a universal field mark of all Cisticolas,. 

 

However I don't think that this is a field mark of the Golden-headed Cisticola. While Zitting Cisticolas occur in Africa (and in Asia) I can't say that I have ever noticed their mouth. Can anyone comment.

 

Tim Murphy