Margaret's batis (''Batis margaritae'') or Boulton's batis, is a species of small passerine bird in the wattle-eyes family,

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 ...

. It is found in south western central Africa.

Taxonomy

Margaret's batis was described by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

zoologist

Wolfrid Rudyerd Boulton Wolfrid Rudyerd Boulton (April 5, 1901 – January 24, 1983) was an American ornithologist who worked extensively in Africa. Boulton held positions at the American Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and travele ...

in 1934. The

binomial Binomial may refer to: In mathematics *Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms * Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials *Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition ...

and

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s honour the American historian and novelist

Margaret Leech Margaret Kernochan Leech (November 7, 1893 – February 24, 1974), also known as Margaret Pulitzer, was an American historian and fiction writer. She won the Pulitzer Prize for History both in 1942 (''Reveille in Washington'', Harper) (first woma ...

(1893-1974). Two subspecies are recognised: *''B. m. margaritae'' Boulton, 1934 –

Mount Moco Mount Moco (Portuguese: ), at , is the highest mountain in Angola. It is located in Huambo Province in the western part of the country, west of the city of Huambo.''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition'', p. 754. Mount Moco was ...

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 Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also know ...

-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 has a rufous wing stripe. The tail is black with white outer tail feathers. Juveniles resemble the females but are duller and have brown eye. The bill and legs are black. They measure in length and weigh .

Voice

Margaret's batis is known to make various whistles and churring calls. The territorial call is a repeated, soft, thin "hoo-hoo-hoo-hooit-hooit-hooit" which varies in length. The female and male duet with a tweeting call.

Distribution and habitat

Margaret's batis occurs mostly in forests dominated by ''

Cryptosepalum ''Cryptosepalum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. There are 12 species, mostly trees. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa,Van Der Burgt, X. M., Poundje, M., & Sene, O. (2014)''Cryptosepalum korupense'' Burgt, sp. nov.(Le ...

spp'' but also occurs in other types of dry evergreen forest, riverine forest and secondary scrub growth. It is usually found in pairs and it is thought that its social behaviour is similar to that of other batises. It forages in trees and is not as restless as many of its congeners when foraging, often staying still for up to a minute. It joins mixed foraging flocks, often in the company of

chinspot batis The chinspot batis (''Batis molitor'') is a small songbird of the genus '' Batis'' in the family Platysteiridae which is a common and widespread species in the woodlands of southern Africa from the Eastern Cape north to 3°N in southern Kenya a ...

es. In Zambia there appear to be local movements out of ''Cryptosepalum'' forest during the November to April rainy season.

Behaviour

The breeding biology of Margaret's batis is little known. A nest was observed on

, Angola, in 2010 when a single nest containing two eggs was found in the fork of a tall sapling in an area of dense undergrowth at an altitude of was attended by a pair of Margaret's batis. The nest was placed at a height of around from the ground, The inside of the nest cup was lined with very thin strips of grass, while the outside consisted of fine grass and mosses bound with spider's web, with small pieces of lichen attached to the spiders webs. The construction and dimensions of the nest are very similar to those of other batises.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1310793 Margaret's batis Birds of Central Africa Margaret's batis Taxonomy articles created by Polbot