Batis soror
Silhouette: Mathieu Pélissié · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The pale batis (Batis soror), also known as the Mozambique batis or East coast batis, is a species of small bird in the wattle-eyes family, Platysteiridae. It occurs in eastern Africa, mostly in lowland miombo woodland.
The pale batis is an active, black, white and grey bird which is pale grey above with a black face mask bordered by a thin white supercilium, yellow eye and a pale grey back, mottled with faint white spots. It has white underparts marked with a black band across the breast in males; females have a pale rufous breast band and a similar coloured spot on the chin. The bill and legs are black. Immature birds are similar to the female except that the breast band is browner and the underparts have a buffy wash. The pale batis measures 10.5–11.5 cm (4.1–4.5 in) in length and weighs 8–13.1 g (0.28–0.46 oz).
The territorial call of the pale batis is a repeated, mournful, long and piping 3-note "pook pook pook" which is repeated up to 12 times at a constant rate, with which the female duets giving excited "wik-wik" calls. Otherwise the repertoire consists of typical batis bill snaps, churrs and whistles.
Eastern Africa from coastal... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Pale Batis sighting in Zanzibar City on a given day, based on 60 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 45th most-seen of the 86 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Pale Batis in Zanzibar City on a given day, against about 10% in March and October, the lowest months. That is one of Zanzibar City's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 260 mm in April.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pale Batis sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Zanzibar City, in our data
Zanzibar City is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Pale Batis sightings: about 30% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Pale Batis that you can see in Zanzibar City (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are House Crow (about 90%), Scarlet-chested Sunbird (about 80%) and House Sparrow (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pale Batis is recorded against all the birds logged in Zanzibar City (60 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.
