Pririt batis

Pririt batis
Male in Northern Cape, South Africa
Female in Northern Cape, South Africa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Platysteiridae
Genus: Batis
Species: B. pririt
Binomial name
Batis pririt
(Vieillot, 1818)

The pririt batis (Batis pririt) also known as the pririt puff-back flycatcher or pririt puffback, is a small passerine bird in the wattle-eye family. It is resident in western and central southern Africa.

It is a small stout insect-eating bird, found in dry broadleaf woodland and thorn scrub. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush.

The pririt batis is strikingly patterned. The adult male has a dark grey crown and back, black eye mask and white throat. It has a black rump and tail, and its wing are black with white edging to the flight feathers and a long white shoulder patch. The underparts are white with a broad black breast band and black speckles on the flanks. The female and juvenile plumages differ in that there is no black breast band, but the throat and breast are a warm buff colour.

The pririt batis hunts by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The song is typically a slow descending series of whistled notes: teuu, teuu, teuu, teuu.

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This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, July 26, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.