Batis (bird)

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Batis
Woodwards Batis (Batis fratrum).jpg
Woodwards's batis, Batis fratrum
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Platysteiridae
Genus: Batis
F. Boie, 1833
Type species
Muscicapa capensis [1]
Linnaeus, 1766
Species

See text

Batis (pronounced BAT-iss) is a genus of passerine birds in the wattle-eye family. Its species are resident in Africa south of the Sahara. They were previously classed as a subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae.

They are small stout insect-eating birds, usually found in open forests or bush. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush. They hunt by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike.

Batis species are strikingly patterned, typically with a grey crown, black eye mask, dark back, and paler underparts, often with a coloured or black breast band and white on the throat which contrasts strongly with the black eye stripe. Male and female plumages usually differ.

The song is typically a descending triple whistle.

Taxonomy

The genus Batis was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833. [2] The type species was subsequently designated as the Cape batis. [3] The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek batis, batidos, an unidentified worm-eating bird mentioned by Aristotle. [4]

The genus contains 21 species. [5] [6]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wattle-eye</span> Family of birds

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Woodwards's batis or the Zululand batis is a species of small bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It occurs in southeastern Africa where it is found in woodlands and forests.

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The Senegal batis is a species of small passerine bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It occurs in western Africa where it is found in dry savanna and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. It was originally given the binomial name Muscicapa senegalensis by Carl Linnaeus in 1766.

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The dark batis is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Batis in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae. It is found in highland forest in south-west Tanzania, northern Malawi, and northern Mozambique. These birds were formerly thought to be forest batises but in 2006 were described as a new species based on differences in morphology and mitochondrial DNA from those birds in northern Tanzania and Kenya.

Reichenow's batis is a passerine bird in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae occurring in southeast Tanzania in east Africa. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the forest batis.

References

  1. "Platysteiridae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  2. Boie, Friedrich (1833). "Fernere Vemertungen über Classification der Vögel". Isis von Oken (in German). 26. Col 876-884 [880].
  3. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 378.
  4. Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Batises, woodshrikes, bushshrikes, vangas". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  6. "Species Updates – IOC World Bird List" . Retrieved 2021-06-04.