Zitting Cisticola

The zitting cisticola 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. Nationally Least Concern (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).