Coastal cisticola
species of bird

The coastal cisticola (Cisticola haematocephalus), also known as the umbabird, is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is found on the coastal plain of East Africa.
Alternate common names are Mombasa black-backed cisticola.
Taxonomy
The coastal cisticola is monotypic. This taxon was split from the winding cisticola by the IOC and HBW, as were the rufous-winged cisticola, Luapula cisticola and Ethiopian cisticola. The Clements (2017) and Howard and Moore (2014) world lists consider these taxa as a single species, the winding cisticola C. galactotes (sensu lato).
Distribution and habitat
This species is found on the coastal plain of East Africa between 5°N to 10°S (southern Somalia to north-eastern Tanzania).
Its natural habitats are tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland and swamps.
The public source identifies “Coastal cisticola” as species of bird. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Coastal, cisticola and species.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12255851. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2017 and 2014.
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This entry incorporates text from “Coastal cisticola” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.