North of equatorial forest belt: from central Cameroon (Mt Kupé and Mt Oku, and recorded south to Mt Cameroon and Yaoundé area) and southern Chad east to central and southern Sudan, Eritrea, lower parts of southern Ethiopia and north-western Somalia, south to eastern DRCongo, Burundi, north-western Tanzania and western Kenya.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2020) and decreasing.
Western Black-headed Batis (Batis erlangeri) [XC396109]
by James Bradley from Kericho County, Kenya (call)
Western Black-headed Batis (Batis erlangeri) [XC299979]
by Peter Boesman from Lake Ziway, Ethiopia (call)
Subspecies
Batis minor (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split into Eastern Black-headed Batis (Batis minor) and Western Black-headed Batis (Batis erlangeri) by Louette (2005) but this treatment is not followed by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group because cited morphological and vocal differences are slight or undetectable and intraspecific variation can be as great as interspecific variation in some characters.
erlangeri Neumann, 1907 - Ethiopian plateau and Somalia western to Cameroon and Angola. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Eastern Black-headed Batis (Batis minor).
congoensis Neumann, 1907 - Southern Congo, south-western DR Congo, western Angola.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet