Английская Википедия:Dark batis
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Speciesbox
The dark batis (Batis crypta) is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Batis in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae. It is found in highland forest in south-west Tanzania, northern Malawi, and northern Mozambique. These birds were formerly thought to be forest batises (B. mixta) but in 2006 were described as a new species based on differences in morphology and mitochondrial DNA from those birds in northern Tanzania and Kenya.
Description
The dark batis is about Шаблон:Cvt in length and weighs Шаблон:Cvt. It has a dark bill and legs and red eyes. The male is white below with a broad black breastband. Above it has a dark grey crown, grey back with some black feather-tips, a black face-mask and black wings with a white stripe. The female has a greyish crown, brownish back, dark mask, slight white supercilium and a narrow rufous stripe on the wing. Below it has a rufous chin-spot and breast with whitish tips to some of the feathers.[1]
The forest batis has a slightly shorter tail. Males of the two species are very similar but forest batises have a narrower breastband and usually some hint of a white supercilium which is lacking in the male dark batis. The females are more distinctive: female forest batises have a paler breast and chin with more white tips giving a mottled appearance. There is a conspicuous white supercilium and a broad rufous wing-stripe.[1]
The dark batis has a variety of whistling and harsh churring calls and its wings make a whirring sound in flight. The male's song is a series of short, low whistles.[1]
Distribution and habitat
It is found in the Eastern Arc Mountains of East Africa from the Ukaguru Mountains and Uluguru Mountains of central Tanzania south-westwards as far as the Misuku Hills in northernmost Malawi and the Njesi Highlands in northern Mozambique.[2][3]
It inhabits evergreen forest from Шаблон:Convert above sea-level and is most common around Шаблон:Convert. It forages mainly in the lower and middle levels of trees, feeding on insects such as termites.[4]
References
- BirdLife International (2008) Species factsheet: Batis crypta.Шаблон:Dead link Accessed 26 May 2008.
External links
- Distribution map
- Tanzania Bird Atlas:
- ↑ 1,0 1,1 1,2 Шаблон:Cite journal
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite journal
- ↑ Samuel EI Jones, Gabriel A Jamie, Emidio Sumbane & Merlijn Jocque (2020) The avifauna, conservation and biogeography of the Njesi Highlands in northern Mozambique, with a review of the country’s Afromontane birdlife, Ostrich, 91:1, 45-56, DOI: 10.2989/00306525.2019.1675795
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
