Batis minor
Silhouette: Mathieu Pélissié · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Black-headed Batis sighting in Tsavo West National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 366th most-seen of the 380 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Black-headed Batis in Tsavo West National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to August, the lowest months. That is one of Tsavo West National Park's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 140 mm in November.
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.
5th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Eastern Black-headed Batis sightings, Tsavo West National Park ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Mkomazi National Park (Tanzania, about 40%), Meru National Park (Kenya, about 10%) and Mikumi National Park (Tanzania, about 10%).
Same genus: Batis
The closest relatives of the Eastern Black-headed Batis that you can see in Tsavo West National Park (genus Batis, turtleweeds) are Pygmy Batis (about 30%) and Chinspot Batis (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eastern Black-headed Batis is recorded against all the birds logged in Tsavo West National Park (6 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.
