Alternative name: Cape Puffback
- Batis capensis
Identification
Cape Batises have large heads relative to their small bodies. They weigh 5.1 ounces (13 grams) and are 6 inches (15 centimeters) long. They have short tails, round wings, and orange eyes.
Adult male: Has a dark blue-gray back and tail, black head with a grey crown, white throat and belly, reddish brown flanks, and a black breast band.
Adult female: Similar to the male, but with reddish brown throat patch and breast band.
Variation
Variation is mainly in size (northern races larger) and shades of grey versus rufous plumage.
Distribution
Southern Africa: Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, South Africa, Mozambique, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and eSwatini
Taxonomy
Photo © by Alan Manson
Slanghoek Mountain Resort, Western Cape, South Africa, January 2009
Malawi Batis was formerly included in this species. The split seems to have been caused by observing both forms coexisting in the same area.
Subspecies
Four subspecies are recognized[1]:
- B. c. capensis
- Southern South Africa, east to Free State and southern KwaZulu-Natal
- B. c. hollidayi
- Northeastern South Africa, Lesotho, ESwatini and Mozambique (Lebombo Range)
- B. c. kennedyi
- Southwestern Zimbabwe (Mopoto Hills region)
- B. c. erythrophthalma
- eastern highlands of Zimbabwe and adjacent western Mozambique, also locally in southern Malawi
Habitat
The Cape Batis makes his home in forests, scrub, and planted gardens in southern Africa. Their range is from sea level to 7,050 feet (2,150 meters).
Behaviour
Diet
Like other flycatchers, Cape Batises eat insects and actively seek them throughout the forest canopy by flushing, frightening, them from their places of cover, hiding. The birds then capture their prey as it flies.
Breeding
This species mates from September to December, building a small cup-shaped nest of dry grasses, held together with spider webs. The nest is built low in thick brush in the fork of a branch and holds one to three eggs. The female incubates, sits on and warms, the eggs for seventeen to twenty-one days. Mating pairs stay together for life. Parasitised by Klaas's Cuckoo.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
- Fjeldsaa J, RCK Bowie and J Kiure. 2006. The Forest Batis, Batis mixta is two species: description of a new, narrowly distributed Batis species in the Eastern Arc biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Ornithology 147, 578-590.
- Dickinson, EC, ed. 2003. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed., with updates to December 2007 (Corrigenda 7). Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691117010
- Percy Fitzpatrick Institute. 2006. A new Batis in East Africa. Africa Birds and Birding Vol. 11, Part 6, p26. (Available at http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/pdf/fitzdj06.pdf)
- Avibase
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Cape Batis. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 7 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Cape_Batis
External Links
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