Senegal Batis Batis senegalensis Scientific name definitions

10 cm; 8–11·4 g. Small flycatcher-like and shrike-like bird with contrasting black, grey and white (and some rufous) colours. Male is dark slaty grey above with brownish tinge; black mask from bill over and under eye to ear-coverts, rather broad white supercilium, white spots on hindneck, back and rump; white wingstripe; tail black, outermost rectrix bordered and tipped white; white below , black breastband, black underwing-coverts; iris golden yellow; bill and legs black. Female is paler on back than male, has superciliary line, neck and wingstripe washed rufous, breastband rufous; generally paler than B. minor or B. orientalis. Immature is like female but browner, wing-coverts tipped rusty buff, white in outer tail feathers tipped buff.

S Mauritania and Senegal S to Sierra Leone, E to Niger, Nigeria and N Cameroon (E to Benue Plain and Mandara region).

Dry thorn-scrub, woody savannas, also farms, grasssland with sparse trees and bushes, e.g. acacia (Acacia) woodland and baobab (Adansonia) country. Occurs in Sahel (in Mali and Niger), and in S occupies the woodland belt, but absent from heavily forested areas near coast. To at least 900 m in Cameroon.

Resident. Possibly only non-breeding vagrant in extreme S part of its range in Cameroon.

Diet arthropods. Mainly insects, e.g. large caterpillar (Lepidoptera) recorded and many other insect orders, including beetles (Coleoptera), mantids (Mantodea), flies (Diptera), hymenopterans, orthopterans, neuropterans; takes advantage of swarming ants and termites (Isoptera); spiders also taken. Prey in size range 5–55 mm, most often 20–30 mm. Frequents different strata in vegetation, mainly 1–5 m above ground; sometimes quite low down, but not on the ground. Gleans foliage, also explores outer parts of branches and around trunk or stems. Hops, and makes sallies of c. 2 m; hawks insects in air. Large prey rubbed or hit on perch.

Very variable, sometimes brief and feeble song, but also scolding series, and repeated whistles. Wing-fripping and bill-snapping recorded.

Mainly Feb–Jul, but from Jan in Ivory Coast and to Aug in Ghana. Territorial. Nest a neat tiny cup made from grasses with lichen and bark, bound with spider web, placed in fork of small tree or bush, well camouflaged. Clutch 2 eggs, pale greenish or blue-green, distinctly spotted with red-brown and violet all over (spots larger, forming cap or ring, towards blunt end); incubation period 15 days; fledging period 18 days; young stay with parents until next breeding cycle.

Not globally threatened. Generally common. In Senegal, a pair every 400–500 m of line transect; thought to be decreasing in Gambia owing to loss of habitat. Most numerous in guinean savanna in Nigeria, but present everywhere outside high forest. Uncommon in Niger. In Cameroon in savannas and open woodland of the Adamawa Plateau, the Benue Plain and from Mandara Mts to Yagoua; very rare (perhaps vagrant) in moist S savannas of the forest-savanna mosaic, with records from Mt Oku, Nkouden area, Bafia and Yaoundé. Occurs in several protected areas throughout range.