Batis minor
Silhouette: Mathieu Pélissié · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The eastern black-headed batis (Batis minor) is a passerine bird in the family Platysteiridae from eastern Africa. It was formerly treated as conspecific with the western black-headed batis. The eastern black-headed batis was described by the German ornithologist Carlo von Erlanger in 1901 who considered the taxon as a subspecies of the grey-headed batis (Batis orientalis) and introduced the trinomial name Batis orientalis minor.
Two subspecies are recognised: It is a small, stocky, rather restless, flycatcher like bird with a white, black and grey plumage. The forehead, crown and nape are blackish grey with a white supercilium and loral spot, the mask is glossy bluish black and there is a white spot on the nape. The mantle and back are dark grey with a paler rump, females have a greyer mantle. The underparts are white with a glossy black breast band, which is dark reddish brown in the females. The tail is black with white outer tail feathers... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Black-headed Batis sighting in Meru National Park on a given day, based on 20 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 151st most-seen of the 243 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Black-headed Batis in Meru National Park on a given day, against about 10% in June, September and December–April, the lowest months. Those are among Meru National Park's wettest months, with about 140 mm of rain a month against almost none in July. May and July–August have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eastern Black-headed 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.
2nd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Eastern Black-headed Batis sightings, Meru National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Mkomazi National Park (Tanzania, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eastern Black-headed Batis is recorded against all the birds logged in Meru National Park (20 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
