Voice
Muffled 'tr-r-rrrrrt' and loud plaintive 'hu-weeee', deeper than Wailing Cisticola (Cisticola lais), given from a perch or in the air. A harsher 'chee-chee', call.
Grey-backed Cisticola (Cisticola subruficapilla) [XC523739]
by Lynette Rudman from Porter Rd, S of Roo Els, Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa (call)
Grey-backed Cisticola (Cisticola subruficapilla) [XC509790]
by Frank Lambert from Cape of Good Hope NP, Western Cape, South Africa (call, briefly calling in flight at end)
Subspecies
Angolan and northern Namibian population is disjunct from the main population of southern Namibia and South Africa. May represent a separate species.
Proposed subspecies euroa (from Free State, in South Africa) synonymized with jamesi.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
newtoni da Rosa Pinto, 1967 - Extreme south-western Angola (Namibe) and north-western Namibia.