Batis capensis
Silhouette: Mathieu Pélissié · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
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. 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. 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 included a brief description, coined the binomial name Muscicapa capensis and cited Brisson's work. The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope. The species is now placed in the genus Batis that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1833.
Five subspecies are recognised. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 7 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Batis sighting in Cape Town on a given day, based on 83 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 126th most-seen of the 196 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Batis in Cape Town on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cape Batis sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 2 cities where we can rate Cape Batis sightings, Cape Town ranks 2nd at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Durban (South Africa, under 5%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Cape Batis that you can see in Cape Town (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Cape White-eye (about 70%), European Starling (about 70%) and Cape Sparrow (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cape Batis is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Town (83 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
