Talk:Cisticola
ICZN, 1999 p.34:
"30.1.1 a genus-group name that is or ends in a Latin word takes the gender given for that word in standard Latin dictionaries; if it is a compound word fromed from two or more components, the gender is given by the final component (in the case of a noun, the gender of that noun; in the case of any other component, such as a Latin suffix, the gender appropriate to that component);"
In this case the component in question is -cola.
The Oxford Latin Dictionary (Glare, ed.) 1982 p.349 gives: "-cola ~ae, m. suff. From COLO + A; denotes one who inhabits, tills, or worships."
Hence Cisticola is a male gender genus-group name.