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Rwenzori Batis
The Rwenzori batis (''Batis diops'') is an endemic bird native to the Albertine Rift montane forests, where it inhabits altitudes of . Description The Rwenzori batis is a small, active black and white Old World flycatcher. The upperparts are dark bluish black with a white stripe along the wing and a white loral spot. The underparts are mostly white except for a glossy bluish black breast band, a black chin spot and black thighs and grey axillaries. The tail is black with the feathers having white tips and white edges on the outer tail feathers. The sexes are similar except that males have yellow eyes and females have been reported sometimes to have orangey-red eyes. Juveniles are similar to adults but the plumage has a more rufous cast. The Rwenzori batis measures in length, and it weighs . Voice The territorial call is a slow low-pitched whistle, which has been described as both ventriloqual and eerie. It is repeated with an interval of 2–4 seconds between each whistle. Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick John Jackson
Sir Frederick John Jackson, (17 February 1860 – 3 February 1929) was an English administrator, explorer and ornithologist. Early years Jackson was born at Oran Hall, near Catterick, North Yorkshire in 1860. He attended Shrewsbury School and then Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1884 he went to Africa on a shooting trip, joining J. G. Haggard, the British consul at Lamu. On this trip he explored the coast of what is now Kenya, the Tana River and Mount Kilimanjaro. As well as shooting big game, he collected birds and butterflies. Soon after the 1886 treaty was signed to delimit the German and British spheres of influence in East Africa he joined the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC). Administrator In 1889 Jackson led an IBEAC expedition that included his friend and fellow explorer Arthur Neumann in the party designed to open up the regions between Mombasa and Lake Victoria, which was largely unknown to Europeans at that time, and if possible to obtain news of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volcanoes National Park
Volcanoes National Park is a national park in northwestern Rwanda. It covers of rainforest and encompasses five of the eight volcanoes in the Virunga Mountains, namely Karisimbi, Bisoke, Muhabura, Gahinga and Sabyinyo. It borders Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. It is home to the mountain gorilla and the golden monkey, and was the base for the primatologist Dian Fossey. History The park was first gazetted in 1925, as a small area bounded by Karisimbi, Bisoke and Mikeno, intended to protect the gorillas from poachers. It was the very first National Park to be created in Africa. Subsequently, in 1929, the borders of the park were extended further into Rwanda and into the Belgian Congo, to form the Albert National Park, a huge area of 8090 km2, run by the Belgian colonial authorities who were in charge of both colonies. In 1958, 700 hectares of the park were cleared for a human settlement. Between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Of Sub-Saharan Africa
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. Bird ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Batis (bird)
''Batis'' (pronounced BAT-iss) is a genus of passerine birds in the wattle-eye family. Its species are resident in Africa south of the Sahara. They were previously classed as a subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. They are small stout insect-eating birds, usually found in open forests or bush. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush. They hunt by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. ''Batis'' species are strikingly patterned, typically with a grey crown, black eye mask, dark back, and paler underparts, often with a coloured or black breast band and white on the throat which contrasts strongly with the black eye stripe. Male and female plumages usually differ. The song is typically a descending triple whistle. Taxonomy The genus ''Batis'' was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833. The type species was subsequently designated as the Cape batis. The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek ''bati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ituri Batis
The Ituri batis or Chapin's batis (''Batis ituriensis'') is a species of bird in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae which is found in the humid forests of eastern central Africa. Description The Ituri batis is a very small black and white bird, like a small shrike or old world flycatcher which is white below with a broad black breast band, a black head with a conspicuous white loral spot in front of a bright yellow eye. Black on the back and wings with a white strip on the wings and white outer tail feathers on an otherwise black tail. The female is similar to the male but has a thin white supercilium. Young birds are buffer above and greyer below. The Ituri batis has a body length of . Distribution and habitat The Ituri batis occurs in the eastern Congo Basin in Ituri and Itombwe in the north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where it is uncommon and in the Budongo Forest in western Uganda where it is common. The Ituri batis is found in lowland forest, between . It pref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodwards's Batis
Woodwards's batis or the Zululand batis (''Batis fratrum'') 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. Taxonomy A description of Woodwards's 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 (zoology), specific name ''fratrum'' is Latin for "of the brothers". Woodwards's batis is now placed in the genus ''Batis (bird), Batis'' that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833. The species is monotypic. Description Woodwards's batis is in length and weighs . It is a small active bird which is similar to a flycatcher and shows the typical patterns and plumage colours of the genus ''Batis (b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dark Batis
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 in length and weighs . 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. The forest batis has a slightly shorter tail. Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forest Batis
The forest batis or short-tailed batis (''Batis mixta'') is a species of bird in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae occurring in eastern Africa. Taxonomy The forest batis was described by the English ornithologist George Ernest Shelley in 1889 and given the binomial name ''Pachypora mixta''. It is now placed in the genus '' Batis'' that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833. The specific epithet ''mixta'' is Latin for "mixed" or "mingled". Reichenow's batis (''Batis reichenowi'') was formerly treated as a subspecies. The forest batis is now treated as monotypic. Description The forest batis is a small species measuring in length and weighing . The adult male has bluish grey upperparts with a black mask across the face, a white spot on the lores and white spots on the rump which are revealed when the long feathers are fluffed out. The underparts are white with a black breast band and blackish thighs. The wings are black with a white stripe, the bill a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Batis
The Cape batis (''Batis capensis'') is a small, stout insect-eating passerine bird in the wattle-eye family. It is endemic to the Afromontane forests of southern Africa. Taxonomy 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''. 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. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret's Batis
Margaret's batis (''Batis margaritae'') or Boulton's batis, is a species of small passerine bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It is found in south western central Africa. Taxonomy Margaret's batis was described by the American zoologist Wolfrid Rudyerd Boulton in 1934. The binomial and common names honour the American historian and novelist Margaret Leech (1893-1974). Two subspecies are recognised: *''B. m. margaritae'' Boulton, 1934 – Mount Moco in western Angola. *''B. m. kathleenae'' White, C.M.N. 1941 – southern Democratic Republic of Congo in southern Katanga and north western Zambia; possibly also in the extreme east of Angola, in eastern Moxico. Description Margaret's batis is a small, mainly black and white shrike-like bird with a black face mask and reddish eye, in a mainly dark grey head. They have white underparts with a broad black breast band in both sexes, with black wings which are marked in the male with a white wing stripe while the female ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platysteiridae
Platysteiridae is a family of small, stout passerine birds of the African tropics. The family contains the wattle-eyes, batises and shrike-flycatchers. They were previously classed as a subfamily of the Old World flycatchers, Muscicapidae. These insect-eating birds are usually found in open forests or bush. They hunt by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The nest is a small, neat cup, placed low in a tree or bush. Distribution and habitat The Platysteiridae are arboreal birds, primarily of the woodlands and forests of sub-Saharan Africa. The family is restricted to mainland Africa and its offshore islands. The shrike-flycatchers and genus ''Dyaphorophyia'' are inhabitants of dense forest, while the rest of the wattle-eyes are found in woodland, and the batises range across all wooded habitats except the densest forests of the Congo Basin. The pririt and pygmy batis survive in very arid environments with some cover, and the white-fronted wattle-eye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is a national park in southwestern Uganda. It was created in 1991 and covers an area of . Geography Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is located in the Virunga Mountains and encompasses three inactive volcanoes, namely Mount Muhabura, Mount Gahinga, and Mount Sabyinyo. In altitude the national park ranges from and is part of the Nile River watershed area. It is contiguous with Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park and the southern sector of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The park is about by road south of the town of Kisoro and approximately by road west of Kabale, the largest city in the sub-region. Climate The area experiences two wet rainy seasons: February to May; and September to December. The average monthly rainfall varies from in October to in July. Biodiversity The national park encompasses bamboo forest, Albertine Rift montane forests, Ruwenzori-Virunga montane moorlands with tree heath, and an alpi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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