Mystery Bird: Eastern Black-headed Batis, Batis minor

I'm sure this is a female from the family that used to be considered flycatchers... but projects beckon me outdoors today, so choosing one of the possible 14 in that family (actually seven from the short-tailed "fishy" genus) will have to wait...

Anagrammatically speaking, a sedate east blackbird hen. Had I not seen this photo before, that would indeed be a stroke of genius, but I'll disqualify myself on the grounds that I just saw the photo ID the other day.

I think it could be one of four species. The "eastern" one is out of range, there's a spot missing for another and the third is too pale. This leaves us with the minor one.

Well I think we can start eliminating some of the closely similar species... there are seven species of Batis (the Greek βάÏοÏ, then Latin batis meaning "ray" or "skate") recorded for Tanzania:

the Short-tailed or Forest (Batis mixta), the Ruwenzori (B. diops), the Cape (B. capensis), the Chinspot (B. molitor), the Pale or Mozambique (B. soror), the Black-headed (B. minor), and the Pygmy (B. perkeo)

we can eliminate the Short-tailed/Forest because the female should show brown on the primary coverts, and also the Cape because it should lack the white eyebrow and should have rufous throat spot as well as rufous on the wings, and while both the Chinspot and Pale/Mozambique both have the white eyebrow we should see varying amounts of chestnut at the chin/throat area...

I cannot rule out the Ruwenzori based upon coloration as it is virtually never phtographed but because it is usually restricted to montane forest above 1,400' and Pangani is only at 3' above sea level, I think we can confidently eliminate that one too...

also hard to find photos of is the Black-headed, but the one female I coud find seems to show brown on the wing coverts as well as some of the primaries, so all I am left with is the Pygmy Batis

female Pygmy Batis (B. perkeo)

For elimination:

female Short-tailed Batis (B. mixta)

female Cape Batis (B. capensis)

also for elimination:

female Chinspot (B. molitor)

female Black-headed Batis (B. diops)

I agree Adrian, that Batis orientalis is probably out of range, but Pangani is quite close to Kenya's southern border... however, because there appears to be a brown wash on the shoulder, chin, and supralorals, I would eliminate this one also for coloration

female Grey-headed Batis (B. orientalis)

OK, why not make it five in-a-row... Adrian, this is another photo of a female Black-headed (B. minor) which again shows brown on the primaries as well as alula, so I don't believe Dan's to be the same- I'm sticking with the one that I assume was named after a well-known 18th-century court dwarf whose stage name was Perkeo, apparently derived from the question whether he was big enough to lift a glass of wine, the reply to which in Italian was "perché no?" (Why not?)!

Hello David,I dismissed Pygmy as it should have a short tail, white restricted to a supraloral stripe only and usually has a buffish wash on the throat. The description of Black-headed says that the superciliums meet at the nape, which this appears to do. (Black-headed is a bit of a misnomer as it can have a grey, dark grey or black crown). I am inclined towards Black-headed but agree that the brown shown in your links is intriguing, I can't find any literature to confirm or deny this feature.

Hello david, I've just viewed the pic at full magnification and I think I can see brown on the primaries, I think the light reflection is obscuring the colour. So I'm sticking with Black-headed Batis.

Adrian, I may have to conceed as I've just discovered that the Pygmy I thought I was referencing was in fact a Senegal Batis (Batis senegalensis) instead!

And I've finally been able to eliminate Rwenzori from the puzzle (or was this a curve ball David?). The female has a red eye and black breast-band with no reddish.