Pririt batis | |
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Male in Northern Cape, South Africa | |
Female in Northern Cape, South Africa | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Platysteiridae |
Genus: | Batis |
Species: | B. pririt |
Binomial name | |
Batis pririt (Vieillot, 1818) |
The pririt batis (Batis pririt) also known as the pririt puff-back flycatcher or pririt puffback, is a small passerine bird in the wattle-eye family. It is resident in Southern Africa and southwestern Angola.
It is a small stout insect-eating bird, found in dry broadleaf woodland and thorn scrub. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush.
The pririt batis is strikingly patterned. The adult male has a dark grey crown and back, black eye mask and white throat. It has a black rump and tail, and its wing are black with white edging to the flight feathers and a long white shoulder patch. The underparts are white with a broad black breast band and black speckles on the flanks. The female and juvenile plumages differ in that there is no black breast band, but the throat and breast are a warm buff colour.
The pririt batis hunts by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The song is typically a slow descending series of whistled notes: teuu, teuu, teuu, teuu.