Cape Batis

Female Cape Batis
Photo by louisdup
Baviaanskloof, South Africa

Batis capensis

Includes Malawi Batis and Reichenow's Batis

Identification

Also called Cape Puffbacks, 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.

Distribution

Southern Africa.

Male Cape Batis feeding a juvenule Klaas's Cuckoo
Photo by Alan Manson
Location: Slanghoek Mountain Resort, Western Cape, South Africa

Taxonomy

Batis capensis has seven subspecies, variation being mainly in size (northern races larger) and shades of grey and rufous plumage:^1,2

• B. c. capensis

• Southern and south-eastern South Africa

• B. c. hollidayi

• Eastern South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland

• B. c. kennedyi

• Eastern highlands of Zimbabwe and adjascent Mozambique highlands

• B. c. erythrophthalma

• South-central plateau of Zimbabwe

• B. c. dimorpha

• Mountains of southern Malawi and adjacent Mozambique

• B. c. sola

• Northern Malawi

• B. c. reichenowi

• South-eastern Tanzania

Sibley & Monroe⁶ recognised the Malawi Batis (B. c. dimorpha and B. c. sola) and Reichenow's Batis (B. c. reichenowi) as separate species. These splits from the Cape Batis have, however, not been recognised by Clements¹ or Howard & Moore³. Recent genetic evidence from a study of the forest Batis species^2,5 indictates that birds from Malawi are closely related to South African birds, but the two populations are sufficiently different to recognise them as separate species. However, birds from Zimbabwe and Mozambique were not included in this study.

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

1. Clements, JF. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019
2. Feldsa 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.
3. 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
4. Gill, F and M Wright. 2008. Birds of the World: Recommended English Names. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, USA. 2006. ISBN 9780691128276. Update (2008) downloaded from http://worldbirdnames.org/names.html.
5. Percy Fitzpatrick Institute. 2006. A new Batis in East Africa. Africa Birds and Birding Vol. 11, Part 6, p26. (Avilable at http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/pdf/fitzdj06.pdf)
6. Sibley, CG and BL Monroe. 1996. Birds of the World, on diskette, Windows version 2.0. Charles G. Sibley, Santa Rosa, CA, USA.

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Cape Batis. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 9 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Cape_Batis

External Links

Search for photos of Cape Batis in the gallery