Pririt batis
| Pririt Batis | |
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| Male in Northern Cape, South Africa | |
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| Female in Northern Cape, South Africa | |
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| Species: | B. pririt
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| Binomial name | |
| Batis pririt (Vieillot, 1818)
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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.
References
- Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa (Struik 2002) ISBN 1-86872-721-1