Woodwards' Batis - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name: Zululand Batis

Male
Photo by the late Jan Van den Broeck
Sancta Lucia, South Africa, 2005

Batis fratrum

Identification

Length 11 cm. Bill, legs and feet black.

Male: Forehead, crown, nape and back grey; wing blackish with white wing-bar; chin and throat white and breast pale rufous. Eyes yellow

Female: Similar to male, but with narrow whitish eyebrow, rufous wingbar, pale rufous chin and throat and orange eyes.

Distribution

Coastal eastern Africa from 13ºS to 29ºS: Mozambique and northern KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), extending to extreme southern Malawi and extreme eastern lowlands of Zimbabwe.

Taxonomy

Female
Photo by Alan Manson
Cape Vidal, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa, February 2008

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Habitat

Understory of coastal dune and lowland forests and dry savanna.

Behaviour

Usually single or in pairs, keeping below canopy where it forages for insects.

Breeding

Monogamous and territorial. The nest is a shallow cup of vegetative material bound by spider web. Placed among leaves or vines between 0.8 and 3 m above the ground. One to three eggs are laid October to November.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view
2. Hockey, PAR, WRJ Dean, and PG Ryan, eds. 2005. Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 978-0620340533
3. BF Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Woodwards' Batis. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 6 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Woodwards%27_Batis

External Links

Search for photos of Woodwards' Batis in the gallery