Song Bird in Kenya, Need Help with ID

[Loi Nguyen]

This image was taken on the Laikipia plateau in Kenya on a river bank. Appreciate your help with IDing it.

1DX
500f4 II +1.4X III
1/1000
f5.6
ISO-800
Handheld from safari vehicle

Thank you

Loi

[Richard Unsworth]

Nice shot indeed, lovely BG and perch

ID looks like a Zitting cisticola to me :-)

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice calling pose and a nice combination of perch + BG

sorry can't help with ID

[gail bisson]

It is definitely a cisticola but which one? I looked through my SASOL Birds of SA and the black bill makes me think this is a croaking cisticola.
Nice perch and BG. I would take a bit off the top.
Gail

[edwardselfe]

I'd agree on Zitting or Fan-tailed Cisticola although I'd expect a longer tail. However, it's a pretty bedraggled looking individual so perhaps not easy to tell. Like the lighting and the behaviour and it's nice to see the black lining of the mouth which is a feature that cisticolas (and some other warblers) develop during their breeding season.
Ed

[adrian dancy]

Nice work with this Cisticola in full song. Nice perch and BG and IQ.

[vishaljadhav]

Great pose and a perfect BG, i like the calling pose nicely captured

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot.
Love the calling pose, great perch, and very nice background.
Well done.

[David Salem]

Nice looking shot Loi. I like the calling pose and the look at the inside of the mouth. The perch and the BG look great, almost like a set-up but im sure it wasn't. One more for taking some off the top. Well done.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone. Glad that you like it.

Richard, Gail, and Edward, thanks for narrowing down the ID as a Cisticola. I looked up Zitting and Fan tailed Cisticola, and to me this looks like a Fan tailed because of the red color of the eye.

Here is a repost with tighter crop.

David, no, this was not a set up, but the BG color was amazing, It was right next to a river in early morning. I was just testing the AF focus on the branch when he flew in and landed on that exact branch!

Loi

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent shot with a great perch.

[edwardselfe]

Much better with closer crop.

Zitting and Fan-tailed Cisticolas are the same - they just have two names and I wrote both in case anyone was struggling to find in their book.....not that any of this matters for this forum! Nice pic and great colours.

Ed