Woodward's batis

Woodward's batis
A female at Cape Vidal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Platysteiridae
Genus: Batis
Species: B. fratrum
Binomial name
Batis fratrum
(Shelley, 1900)[2]

Woodward's batis or Zululand batis (Batis fratrum) is a species of small bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It occurs in south-eastern Africa where it is found in woodlands and forests.

Description

Woodward's batis is a small active bird which is similar to a flycatcher and shows the typical patterns and plumage colours of the genus Batis. It is blue-grey above with a short white supercilium, black mask on the face, an orange-red eyes and the tail is black with the outer tail fathers edged white and all of the tail feathers except the middle two are tipped with white. It is sexually dimorphic and the male shows white on the wing strip, chin and throat while his breast and upper belly are pale rufous. The female has a browner more olive grey upperparts, pale reddish brown wing stripe and underparts while juveniles are similar but with an indistinct face mask. The bill and the legs are black.[3] The pale batis measures 10.5 cm in length and weighs 10.3–13.8g.[4]

Distribution and habitat

Woodward's batis is indemic to south-eastern Africa from the extreme north east of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, north along coastal northern Mozambique and southern Malawi and inland to the remnant forests of south eastern Zimbabwe.[5]

Woodward's batis prefers lowland and evergreen forest as well as dense acacia woodland, sand forest, riparian forest and miombo woodland.[6] In Malawi it extends up to 600m.[5]

Habits

Woodward's batis actively and continuously forages throughout the day, capturing insect prey by gleaning it from twigs, leaves and branches, typically while hovering in mid-air.

The nest is the typical batis loosely-constructed shallow cup, made out of rootlets, tendrils, fragments of dead leaves and sometimes lichen, bound together with strands of spider web. Unusually for this genus it is usually placed amongst creepers or leaves and rarely in a tree fork. The 1-3 eggs are laid from October-November and these are probably incubated solely by the female, as in most other batises..

Naming

The English and Latin names commemorate its discovery by the Anglican missionaries the Woodward brothers, Robert and John.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Batis soror". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  2. ↑ "Batis fratrum (Shelley, 1900)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  3. ↑ Harris, Tony; Franklin, Kim (2000). Shrikes and Bush-shrikes. Christopher Helm. pp. 301–302. ISBN 0-7136-3861-3.
  4. ↑ "Woodward's Batis (Batis fratrum)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  5. 1 2 "Woodward's Batis Woodwardse Bosbontrokkie Batis fratrum" (PDF). The Atlas of Southern African Birds. Animal Demography Unit. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  6. ↑ "Batis fratrum (Woodward's batis)". Biodiversity Explorer. Iziko Museums of South Africa. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  7. ↑ Boelens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2014). The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. Bloomsbury. ISBN 1 4729 0574 1.
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