Ward's Flycatcher Pseudobias wardi Scientific name definitions

15 cm; one bird 12·5 g. Slender “flycatcher” with some resemblance to Batis, but has long tail. Male is glossy black above, with white bar on wing-coverts; underside white, with black breastband , grey flanks; iris brown, fleshy eyering bright blue; bill greyish-blue, black tip; legs greyish-black. Female like male, but breastband less glossy and sometimes less clearly demarcated from white of belly. Immature lacks gloss above, has breastband brownish-black, head brown with whitish streaks, bill paler.

E Madagascar.

Rainforest, also adjacent secondary forest, from sea-level to 1800 m. Middle altitudinal zones from 300 m upwards preferred, possibly because optimal lowland forest rare nowadays; c. 1200 m optimum in Anjanaharibe-sud Special Reserve and Ando­hahela National Park (but not present at that altitude in Marojejy National Park). It has recently been found in dry forest in the small islands of the Nosy Hara archipelago, off NNW Madagascar (1 Raherilalao, M.J. (2010). Les oiseaux de l’archipel de Nosy Hara, au nord nord- ouest de Madagascar et la nouvelle distribution connue du Gobe mouche de Ward (Pseudobias wardi). Madagascar Conserv. & Develop.. 5(1): 48–54. Close ).

Resident.

Diet insects: hymenopterans and beetles (Coleoptera) recorded. Frequents middle and upper storeys, often at edge of forest. Said to be a very active forager, hawking insects in manner of a paradise-flycatcher (Terpsiphone), but also captures prey on wing after a short flight from ambush.

High-pitched nasal “tree tree tree”; other sounds said to resemble those of magpie-robins (Copsychus).

Recorded in Nov; immature found in Dec. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Was considered Near Threatened by Projet ZICOMA in 1999. Has always been thought to be rather patchily distributed. Recent counts in Anjanaharibe-sud Special Reserve and Andohahela National Park reveal that it does not occur at great density; seems, however, to be present in most of the investigated good forest sites in optimal elevational belt of E Madagascar , although probably not of general distribution (owing to clearance of rainforest). Absent from Nosiarivo Forest (Ankaratra Massif), on C Madagascar Plateau, and from slopes of Montagne d’Ambre, in N of island. It has recently been found in dry forest in the small islands of the Nosy Hara archipelago, off NNW Madagascar (1 Raherilalao, M.J. (2010). Les oiseaux de l’archipel de Nosy Hara, au nord nord- ouest de Madagascar et la nouvelle distribution connue du Gobe mouche de Ward (Pseudobias wardi). Madagascar Conserv. & Develop.. 5(1): 48–54. Close ).