Cisticola marginatus occurs in western and eastern sub-Saharan Africa. The nominate subspecies in breeding plumage has a rufous crown and dark dorsal streaks.
The nominate subspecies in breeding plumage has a fairly long tail, dark streaks on a brown back, a rufous crown, pale underparts, and a pale area around the eye.
It uses marshes, reedbeds, rice fields, and nearby grassland, searching low vegetation and water margins for small invertebrates.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.