Cape Batis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Batis capensis (Linnaeus, 1766) |
The Cape Baits, Batis capensis, is a small passerine bird in the wattle-eye family. It is resident in the highlands of southern and eastern South Africa and Zimbabwe.
It is a small stout insect-eating bird, usually found in moist evergreen mountain forests and wooded gorges. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush.
The Cape Batis is strikingly patterned. The adult male has a grey crown, black eye mask and white throat. Its back is brown, with a black rump and tail and rufous wings. The underparts are white with a broad black breast band and rufous flanks. The female and juvenile plumages differ in that the breast band is narrower and rufous, not black, and there is a small rufous patch on the throat. The rufous wings and flanks are a distinction from other Batis species in the region.
The Cape Batis hunts by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The song is typically a triple whistle cherra-warra-warra or foo-foo-foo.
[edit] References
- Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa (Struik 2002) ISBN 1-86872-721-1
