Cape batis

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape batis in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He used the French name Le gobe-mouche du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Muscicapa Bonae Spei.{{ cite book | last=Brisson | first=Mathurin Jacques | author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson | year=1760 | title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés | volume=2 | language=French, Latin | place=Paris | publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche | pages=372–374, Plate 36 fig 3 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36011684 }} The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.{{cite journal |last=Allen | first=J.A. | author-link=Joel Asaph Allen | year=1910 | title=Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus |journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History |volume=28 | pages=317–335 | hdl=2246/678 }} When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Cape batis. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Muscicapa capensis and cited Brisson's work.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1766 | title=Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=12th | volume=1, Part 1 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | place=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | page=327 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42946523 }} The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope.{{cite web | last=Jobling | first=J.A. | year=2018 | title= Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | editor4-last=Christie | editor4-first=D.A. | editor5-last=de Juana | editor5-first=E. | work=Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive | publisher=Lynx Edicions | url=https://www.hbw.com/dictionary/definition/capense-capensis | access-date=26 June 2018 }} The species is now placed in the genus Batis that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833.{{ cite journal | last=Boie | first=Friedrich | author-link=Friedrich Boie | year=1833 | title=Generalübersicht | journal=Isis von Oken | at=Col 880| language=German |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13243574 }}

Five subspecies are recognised.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | year=2018 | title=Batises, woodshrikes, bushshrikes, vangas | work=World Bird List Version 8.1 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/batises/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=26 June 2018 }}

• B. c. sola Lawson, 1964 – northern Malawi
• B. c. kennedyi Smithers & Paterson, 1956 – western to central Zimbabwe
• B. c. erythrophthalma Swynnerton, 1907 – Eastern Highlands in Zimbabwe and Mozambique
• B. c. hollidayi Clancey, 1952 – Waterberg, Soutpansberg, northern Drakensberg and southern Lebombos in South Africa and Mozambique
• B. c. capensis (Linnaeus, 1766) – Western Cape to Lesotho and upland KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The Cape batis is strikingly patterned. The adult male has a grey crown, black eye mask and white throat. Its back is brown, with a black rump and tail and rufous wings. The underparts are white with a broad black breast band and rufous flanks. The female and juvenile plumages differ in that the breast band is narrower and rufous, not black, and there is a small rufous patch on the throat. Their rufous wings and flanks distinguish them from other Batis species in the region.

The males of the two Malawian subspecies (B. c. dimorpha and B. c. sola) differ in having colder tones to the upper part and flank plumages (lacking any rufous or olive), besides having shorter bills, and are sometimes separated as the Malawi batis (Batis dimorpha). The population of Mount Namuli may represent a third subspecies of this northerly taxon.{{cite web|last1=del Hoyo | first1=J. | last2=Collar | first2=N. | last3=Kirwan | first3=G.M.|title=Malawi Batis (Batis dimorpha) |url=https://www.hbw.com/node/1343789 |website=Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive|publisher=Lynx Edicions, Barcelona|access-date=23 April 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Louette |first1=M. |last2=Kirwan |first2=G.M. |title=Cape Batis (Batis capensis) |url=https://www.hbw.com/node/59113 |website=Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive |publisher=Lynx Edicions, Barcelona|access-date=23 April 2018}}

The song is typically a triple whistle cherra-warra-warra or foo-foo-foo.

It is resident in cool coastal forests, moist evergreen mountain forests and wooded gorges. It is native to South Africa, Eswatini, the Matobos and Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique.

Both the male and the female will aggressively defend their territory. When larger birds of prey, animals or humans approach, the bird will often perch conspicuously near the intruder and angrily protest audibly. The Cape batis hunts by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush.

File:AAB 1590 copy.jpg|Female Cape Batis Incubating

{{Reflist}}

• Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa (Struik 2002) {{ISBN|1-86872-721-1}}

• Cape batis - [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/700.pdf Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds].
• [https://thebdi.org/2024/09/18/cape-batis-batis-capensis/ Cape batis] Structured guide to the species in southern Africa

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Cape batis

Category:Birds of Southern Africa

Cape batis

Cape batis