Cape Batis
Batis capensis
A cute, dumpy, colorful flycatcher-like bird that flits around in the mid-canopy and understory of forest, forest edge, thickets, and gardens. There is a chestnut stripe across the top of the closed wing of both sexes. Males have a broad black chest band, yellow eye, and white throat. Females have a reddish eye and brown chin patch. The song is a series of 8-9 plaintive steady piping “peooop” notes, and calls include buzzing grating “ddrz-drrzt-drrr, ddt-ddzt-drzt-drr”. Distinguished from other batises in its range by the chestnut stripe through the wings.
Identification
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. Their rufous wings and flanks distinguish them from other Batis species in the region.<p>The males of the two Malawian subspecies (B. c. dimorpha and B. c. sola) differ in having colder tones to the upper part and flank plumages (lacking any rufous or olive), besides having shorter bills, and are sometimes separated as the Malawi batis (Batis dimorpha). The population of Mount Namuli may represent a third subspecies of this northerly taxon.<p>The song is typically a triple whistle cherra-warra-warra or foo-foo-foo.
Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape batis in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He used the French name Le gobe-mouche du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Muscicapa Bonae Spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Cape batis. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Muscicapa capensis and cited Brisson's work. The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope. The species is now placed in the genus Batis that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833.<p>Five subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Batis capensis
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Platysteiridae
- Genus
- Batis
Range and habitat
It is resident in cool coastal forests, moist evergreen mountain forests and wooded gorges. It is native to South Africa, Eswatini, the Matobos and Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Jackson's Widowbird
Euplectes jacksoni
A medium-sized dark widowbird. Breeding males are unmistakable, with a long downcurved tail and rufous shoulders. Non-breeding males lose their long tail and become streaky and brown, but keep the shoulder pattern. Females are brown and streaky year-round. Breeds in montane grassland, but sometimes found in cultivation and other open habitats. Otherwise usually in flocks, especially when not breeding. Males give an odd display in which they jump straight into the air. Females could be confused with many other species, but even during the non-breeding season are usually associated with males, which can be identified by their shoulder pattern. Non-breeding males could be confused with non-breeding male Fan-tailed Widowbird, but have a more restricted and less orange shoulder patch. The main vocalization is a dry “zrit.”
Spotted Piculet
Picumnus pygmaeus
Tiny woodpecker, quite distinct from most other piculets, although hybrids with White-edged and White-barred Piculets are frequent where ranges overlap. Chestnut plumage with white spots diagnostic. Males have a red forehead. Mostly found in dry and open woodland with dense shrubs (caatinga), but expanding east into the Cerrado and Amazonia regions, where it is also found in mangroves and low intensity agricultural habitats. Song is a very fast descending trill.
Santarem Parakeet
Pyrrhura amazonum
Long-tailed parakeet, mostly green with a scaled breast; has a narrow blue forehead and lacks a red patch on edge of shoulders. Feeds in small groups in the canopy of both humid non-flooded and seasonally flooded forests, as well as forest edges. Most often seen fleetingly, flying in noisy flocks through the sub-canopy. The similar Painted Parakeet has a larger blue patch on the forehead and red shoulder patch. The calls of Painted and Santarem parakeets are apparently indistinguishable.
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