| Woodwards'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 | |
Woodwards's batis or the Zululand batis (Batis fratrum) 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.
A description of Woodwards's batis by the English ornithologist George Ernest Shelley was included as a footnote in an article on birds from Lake St. Lucia in South Africa by the English missionaries and farmers Richard and John Woodward (the Woodward brothers) published in 1900. Shelley coined the binomial name Pachypora fratrum. [3] [4] The specific name fratrum is Latin for "of the brothers". [5] Woodwards's batis is now placed in the genus Batis that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833. [6] The species is monotypic. [7]
Woodwards's batis is 10.5 cm (4.1 in) in length and weighs 10.3–13.8 g (0.36–0.49 oz). [8] It 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. [9]
Woodwards's batis is endemic to southeastern 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. [10]
Woodwards's batis prefers lowland and evergreen forest as well as dense acacia woodland, sand forest, riparian forest and miombo woodland. [11] In Malawi its range extends up to 600 m (2,000 ft). [10]
Woodwards'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 to November and these are probably incubated solely by the female, as with most other batises.
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.
Batis 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.
The Cape batis is a small, stout insect-eating passerine bird in the wattle-eye family. It is endemic to the Afromontane forests of southern Africa.
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).
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 pygmy batis 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 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 marsh tchagra or blackcap bush-shrike is a species of passerine bird placed in the monotypic genus Bocagia in the family Malaconotidae. It is native to marshes in the tropics and subtropics of Africa. It is sometimes placed in the genus Tchagra.
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.
The Woodward brothers were Richard Blake Woodward and John Deverell Stewart Woodward, who were English missionaries and ornithologists. They were born in Bathford, England to Richard and Mary Woodward. Through their field expeditions, specimen collecting and publications, they, along with Arthur Stark, established a basis for 20th-century ornithology in the southern African region.
The western black-headed batis or Von Erlanger's batis, is a species of passerine bird in the wattle-eye family Platysteiridae. It is found over an extensive area of central Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and moist savanna. It was formerly treated as conspecific with the eastern black-headed batis.
