The Cape batis is strikingly patterned. The adult male has a grey crown, black eye mask and white throat. Its back is brown, with a black rump and tail and rufous wings. The underparts are white with a broad black breast band and rufous flanks. The female and juvenile plumages differ in that the breast band is narrower and rufous, not black, and there is a small rufous patch on the throat. Their rufous wings and flanks distinguish them from other Batis species in the region.
The males of the two Malawian subspecies (B. c. dimorpha and B. c. sola ) differ in having colder tones to the upper part and flank plumages (lacking any rufous or olive), besides having shorter bills, and are sometimes separated as the Malawi batis (Batis dimorpha ). The population of Mount Namuli may represent a third subspecies of this northerly taxon.
The song is typically a triple whistle cherra-warra-warra or foo-foo-foo.
It is resident in cool coastal forests, moist evergreen mountain forests and wooded gorges. It is native to South Africa, Eswatini, the Matobos and Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique, and the mountains of Malawi and those of adjacent Zambia and Mozambique.
Both the male and the female will aggressively defend their territory. When larger birds of prey, animals or humans approach, the bird will often perch conspicuously near the intruder and angrily protest audibly. The Cape batis hunts by flycatching, or by taking prey from the ground like a shrike. The nest is a small neat cup low in a tree or bush.
