Woodwards' Batis

About the Woodwards' Batis

Woodwards' batis (Batis fratrum) or the Zululand batis, is a species of small bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It occurs in southeastern Africa where it is found in woodlands and forests. A description of Woodwards' batis by the English ornithologist George Ernest Shelley was included as a footnote in an article on birds from Lake St. Lucia in South Africa by the English missionaries and farmers Richard and John Woodward (the Woodward brothers) published in 1900. Shelley coined the binomial name Pachypora fratrum. The specific name fratrum is Latin for "of the brothers". Woodwards' batis is now placed in the genus Batis that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833. The species is monotypic.

Woodwards' batis is 10.5 cm (4.1 in) in length and weighs 10.3–13.8 g (0.36–0.49 oz). It is a small active bird which is similar to a flycatcher and shows the typical patterns and plumage colours of the genus Batis. It is blue-grey above with a short white supercilium, black mask on the face, an orange-red eyes and the tail is black with the outer tail feathers edged white and all of the tail feathers except the middle two are... Wikipedia →