The banded wattle-eye is a species of bird in the family Platysteiridae. It is endemic to the Bamenda Highlands in western Cameroon. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. In particular, it likely prefers low-altitude forests with more bare ground and denser undergrowth cover.
Region
Cameroon Highlands
Typical Environment
Extremely localized to remnant submontane and montane forests of the Bamenda Highlands, including forest reserves such as Bali Ngemba and Bafut-Ngemba. It typically occupies dense undergrowth, vine tangles, and forest edges within lower montane zones. The species is most often recorded in relatively undisturbed or lightly degraded forest, sometimes along shaded trails and clearings. It avoids heavily opened farmland and plantations, persisting mainly where continuous canopy and thick understorey remain.
Altitude Range
900–1800 m
Climate Zone
Highland
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
The banded wattle-eye is a scarce African understorey flycatcher known only from the Bamenda Highlands of western Cameroon. It keeps to dense lower montane forest and is easily overlooked due to its quiet, skulking habits. Ongoing loss and fragmentation of its forest habitat pose the main threat to its survival.
Temperament
shy and skulking
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats with quick dashes between low perches
Social Behavior
Usually found singly or in territorial pairs in dense undergrowth, sometimes joining mixed-species flocks. Breeding pairs build a neat cup nest suspended in a forked twig or vine, and both sexes share incubation and chick-rearing duties.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
Gives thin, high-pitched whistles and short trills delivered from low concealed perches. Calls can be a soft tsip or a rapid series that accelerates slightly, often carrying only a short distance through dense vegetation.
Plumage
Striking black-and-white patterning with a bold, clean contrast; compact, short-tailed silhouette. Underparts white with a broad black breast band; upperparts mostly black with a conspicuous white wing patch.
Diet
Primarily small insects and other arthropods, taken by gleaning from leaves and twigs or by short sallies from low perches. It forages methodically through the understorey, often within a few meters of the ground. Occasional aerial hawking is used to snatch flushed prey.
Preferred Environment
Feeds in dense shrub layers, vine tangles, forest edges, and along shaded trails within lower montane forest. It favors patches with some open sightlines beneath a closed canopy and thick understory cover.
