Its natural habitat is dry savanna and the canopy of smaller trees.

The black-tailed cisticola was described by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1882 and given the binomial name Dryodromas melanurus.

[2][3] The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek words melas "black" and oura "tail".

[4] The species is now placed in the genus Cisticola which was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829.

It has a rich rufous crown, dark grey-brown back and a long black tail.