Chin-spot Batis, Batis molitor, also known as the White-flanked Batis, the Chin-spot Flycatcher, the Chin Spot Puffback Flycatcher and (my favorite name for this species) the the Chin-spot Puffback, photographed at Nyumba ya Mungu reservoir, near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.
Image: Dan Logen, 14 January 2010. [larger view]
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens ISO 500, f/6.3, 1/320 sec.
Hint: This sexually dimorphic African songbird species is the only one of its genus that "should" be found in this location.
This Chin-spot Batis, Batis molitor, is probably a young female based on the presence of black feathers mixed into the rust-colored breast plumage (males have a black breast band). In addition to the chestnut breast band, adult females also have a rust-colored spot on their throats for which this species was named. This small songbird can be distinguished from the somewhat similar Pygmy Batis, Batis perkeo, by its longer tail, longer white "eyebrow" (supercilliary stripe) and yellow eye.
This common and wide-ranging species is an insect-eating songbird that lives and breeds in a variety of wooded habitats and at a variety of elevations.
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