This cisticola inhabits scrub and savanna in eastern Africa, including Ethiopia and Kenya. The original breeding-plumage description notes dark back streaks, a dark tail band and a pale central belly. It searches for insects in vegetation.
The 1913 description of breeding adults gives a brown crown and nape, pale brown back with darker feather centers, and a tail with a black band and pale tips. The throat and center of the belly are whitish.
It occurs on bushy, rocky hillsides, in dry forest, savanna and scrub, and feeds mainly on insects. The species account reports foraging up to about 3 m in vegetation.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.