Rufous-bellied tit

Rufous-bellied tit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Paridae
Genus: Melaniparus
Species: M. rufiventris
Binomial name
Melaniparus rufiventris
(Barboza du Bocage, 1877)
Synonyms

Parus rufiventris

The rufous-bellied tit (Melaniparus rufiventris) is a species of bird in the tit family.

It is found in Africa from the Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Namibia east to Tanzania and northern Mozambique.

Its habitat is subtropical or tropical dry miombo forests.

This 15 cm long bird has a black head, breast, wings and tail, grey upperparts, white fringes to the wing feathers, and rufous underparts. The adult has a yellow eye, brown in the duller juvenile.

The eastern race has a dark grey breast, washed-out underparts, and a brown eye at all ages. It is sometimes separated as the cinnamon-breasted tit, Melaniparus pallidiventris.

The rufous-bellied tit was formerly one of the many species in the genus Parus but was moved to Melaniparus after a molecular phylogenetic analysis published in 2013 showed that the members of the new genus formed a distinct clade.[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Parus rufiventris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Johansson, U.S.; Ekman, J.; Bowie, R.C.K.; Halvarsson, P.; Ohlson, J.I.; Price, T.D.; Ericson, P.G.P. (2013). "A complete multilocus species phylogeny of the tits and chickadees (Aves: Paridae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 69 (3): 852–860. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.019.
  3. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Waxwings and their allies, tits & penduline tits". World Bird List Version 6.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
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