Pririt Batis

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Waterberg Plateau, Namibia - Jul, 2004

found in the drier parts of southern Africa through to southern Angola. It is a common resident and inhabits acacia savanna and riverine bush. Usually found in pairs or family groups it eats insects.

Pririt Batis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Platysteiridae Genus: Batis Species: B. pririt
Binomial name
Batis pririt (Vieillot, 1818)

The Pririt Batis, Batis pririt, also known as the Pririt Puff-back Flycatcher or Pririt Puffback, is a small passerine bird in the wattle-eye family. It is resident in western and central southern Africa.

It is a small stout insect-eating bird, found in dry broadleaf woodland and thorn scrub. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush.

The Pririt Batis is strikingly patterned. The adult male has a dark grey crown and back, black eye mask and white throat. It has a black rump and tail, and its wing are black with white edging to the flight feathers and a long white shoulder patch. The underparts are white with a broad black breast band and black speckles on the flanks. The female and juvenile plumages differ in that there is no black breast band, but the throat and breast are a warm buff colour.

The Pririt Batis hunts by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The song is typically a slow descending series of whistled notes, teuu, teuu, teuu, teuu.

[edit] References

• Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa (Struik 2002) ISBN 1-86872-721-1