
Photo: (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 (May be cropped or resized)
Cisticola juncidis
Habitat
Grasslands
Range
Western and southern Europe, Africa outside deserts and rainforest, southern Asia to northern Australia
The zitting cisticola, formerly also the fan-tailed warbler, is a widely distributed Old World warbler breeding in western and southern Europe, Africa outside the deserts and rainforest, and southern Asia down to northern Australia. It is a small bird found mainly in grasslands, best identified by its rufous rump, with no gold on the collar and a brownish tail tipped white. In the breeding season males make a zigzagging flight display with regular zit calls, giving the species its name (Wikipedia, general species account).
It builds a pouch nest suspended within a clump of grass. Seventeen subspecies are accepted, in two groups separated by a deep genetic divide that matches the gap in range between western Iran and Pakistan (Wikipedia, general species account).