Margaret's batis

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Margaret's batis, also known as Boulton's batis, is a small black-and-white bird in the wattle-eye family. It lives in southwestern central Africa. It was described by Wolfrid Boulton in 1934, and its name honours Margaret Leech. There are two subspecies.

Appearance and size
It is about 11–12 cm long and weighs 11.5–15.5 g. It has a black face mask, reddish eye, and a dark grey head. The underparts are white with a broad black breast band. The wings are black; males have a white wing stripe, while females have a reddish wing stripe. The tail is black with white outer feathers. Juveniles look like females but are duller with brown eyes. The bill and legs are black.

Sound and behavior
Margaret's batis makes whistles and churring sounds. Its territorial call is a soft, repeating “hoo-hoo-hoo-hooit-hooit-hooit.” Males and females duet with a tweeting call. It usually forages in pairs and isn’t as restless as some relatives, often staying still for a moment. It forages in trees and sometimes joins mixed foraging flocks, often with chinspot batises.

Habitat and range
This bird is mainly found in Cryptosepalum forests but also occurs in other dry evergreen forests, riverine forests, and scrub. It is found in southwestern central Africa. In Zambia, there may be local movements out of Cryptosepalum forests during the November–April rainy season.

Breeding
Little is known about its breeding. A nest was observed in Angola in 2010 on Mount Moco: a single nest with two eggs built in the fork of a small sapling about 90 cm high, at an altitude of about 2,390 m. The nest used fine grasses and mosses bound with spider silk and was lined with thin grass strips. This nest design is similar to other batises.