Zitting Cisticola

The zitting cisticola is a tiny warbler, 10–12cm long, brown above with heavy black streaks and whitish below, with a rufous rump and no gold on the collar. Its broad, brownish tail is tipped white and frequently flicked, which gave it the old name fan-tailed warbler. Males have less crown streaking and more back markings than females, but the sexes and the 17 subspecies differ little. The subspecies fall into two groups separated by a deep genetic divide that matches the gap in range between western Iran and Pakistan (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives mainly in grassland, often near water, and outside the breeding season skulks in the grass and is hard to see. In the breeding season males make a zigzagging display flight with regular zit calls that give it its name. It builds a pouch nest suspended within a clump of grass. Most populations are resident. In India it is resident across a very large range; SoIB 2023 finds its trends stable and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).