| Pygmy batis | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Platysteiridae |
| Genus: | Batis |
| Species: | B. perkeo |
| Binomial name | |
| Batis perkeo | |
The pygmy batis (Batis perkeo) is a very small insectivorous bird which finds its food foraging among leaves, it is a member of the wattle-eyes family, the Platysteiridae. It occurs in the dry savannahs of north-eastern Africa.
The pygmy batis, as its name suggests, is a tiny, rather dumpy but dapper black, white and grey bird with similarities to the flycatchers. The male has a bluish-grey head and back with a contrasting black face mask and short white supercilium above the yellow eye. The rump and lower back are spotted with white and the rump feathers are relatively long giving a fluffy appearance. It has black wings which have a broad white strip formed by the broad white edges to feathers of the median and greater coverts, and the inner secondaries and tertials. The tail is black but the outer tail feathers have white edges and tips. The underparts are white, broken with a narrow black breast band. The females are similar to the males but have a pale rufous-buff breast band and chin and the face mask, supercilium and wing stripe are buffy brown. The bill and legs are black. [3] The pygmy batis has a body length of 8–9 cm (3.1–3.5 in) and a weight of 5–9 g (0.18–0.32 oz). [4]
The main call of the pygmy batis is a ling series of repeated sharp high pitched whistles. [3]
The pygmy batis occurs in southern Ethiopia, extreme south eastern South Sudan, southern Somalia, eastern Uganda, inland Kenya and north eastern Tanzania. [4]
The preferred habitat is scrub made up of Senegalia spp, Commiphora spp and other "thorn" species in arid and semi-arid lowlands with rainfall falling between 250 and 500 mm (9.8 and 19.7 in) per year. Also found in wooded and bushy grassland, but avoids riverine forest. [3]
The pygmy batis is an active, arboreal bird which lives in pairs or small family groups. Its habits are considered to be likely to be similar to other savannah batises. They feed mainly within the foliage and glean most of their insect prey from leaves and twigs, with a small proportion taken on the wing. It will join other bird species in mixed foraging parties. The breeding biology is almost unknown but egg laying probably occurs in February and March. [3]
Platysteiridae is a family of small, stout passerine birds of the African tropics. The family contains the wattle-eyes, batises and shrike-flycatchers. They were previously classed as a subfamily of the Old World flycatchers, Muscicapidae. These insect-eating birds are usually found in open forests or bush. They hunt by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The nest is a small, neat cup, placed low in a tree or bush.
The masked shrike is a species of bird in the shrike family, Laniidae. It breeds in southeastern Europe and at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, with a separate population in eastern Iraq and western Iran. It is migratory, wintering mainly in northeast Africa. Although it is a short-range migrant, vagrants have occurred widely elsewhere, including northern and western Europe. It is the smallest member of its genus, long-tailed and with a hooked bill. The male has mainly black upperparts, with white on its crown, forehead and supercilium and large white patches on the shoulders and wings. The throat, neck sides and underparts are white, with orange flanks and breast. The female is a duller version of the male, with brownish black upperparts and a grey or buff tone to the shoulders and underparts. The juvenile has grey-brown upperparts with a paler forehead and barring from the head to rump, barred off-white underparts and brown wings аpart from the white primary patches. The species' calls are short and grating, but the song has melodic warbler-like components.
The Japanese pygmy woodpecker or pygmy woodpecker is a species of woodpecker. It is found in coniferous and deciduous forests in Russia, China, Korea and Japan. This species has also been placed in the genus Dendrocopos or Picoides. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.
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The bar-breasted firefinch is a common species of estrildid finch found in western and central Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 2,900,000 km².
The tropical boubou or bell shrike is a medium-sized passerine bird of sub-Saharan Africa. This very diverse "species" with its numerous subspecies and morphs has since long posed a taxonomic problem, and recent research suggests it is a cryptic species complex that has now been split into several species.
The Rwenzori batis is an endemic bird native to the Albertine Rift montane forests, where it inhabits altitudes of 1,340–3,300 m (4,400–10,830 ft).
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.
The Ituri batis or Chapin's batis is a species of bird in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae which is found in the humid forests of eastern central Africa.
Margaret's batis or Boulton's batis, is a species of small passerine bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It is found in south western central Africa.
The Gabon batis or Verreaux's batis, is a species of small bird in the family Platysteiridae. It occurs in the humid forests of western Central Africa.
The eastern black-headed batis is a passerine bird in the family Platysteiridae from eastern Africa. It was formerly treated as conspecific with the western black-headed batis.
The Angola batis is a species of bird in the family Platysteiridae. It is found in western central Africa.
The forest batis or short-tailed batis is a species of bird in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae occurring in eastern Africa.
The chinspot batis is a small songbird of the genus Batis in the family Platysteiridae which is a common and widespread species in the woodlands of southern Africa from the Eastern Cape north to 3°N in southern Kenya and Gabon. It forms a superspecies with other rather similar members of the genus Batis.
The grey-headed batis is a species of bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae, it was previously classified with the Old World flycatchers in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in eastern and central Africa.
The Fernando Pó batis, also known as the Bioko batis, is a species of bird in the family Platysteiridae. It is endemic to the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea.
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.
The pale batis, also known as the Mozambique batis or East coast batis is a species of small bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It occurs in eastern Africa, mostly in lowland miombo woodland.
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.
