Rufous-bellied tit

Rufous-bellied tit
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
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.

Taxonomy

The rufous-bellied tit was formally described in 1877 by the Portuguese zoologist José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage based on a specimen collected near the town of Caconda in central Angola. He placed it with the tits in the genus Parus and coined the binomial name Parus rufiventris. ^{[2] [3]} The specific epithet is Modern Latin meaning "red-bellied", from Latin rufus meaning "ruddy" or "rufous" and venter, ventris meaning "belly". ^[4] The rufous-bellied tit is now one of 14 tits placed in the genus Melaniparus that was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. ^[5]

Five subspecies are recognised: ^[5]

• M. r. rufiventris (Barboza du Bocage, 1877) – south Congo and south DR Congo to central Angola and central Zambia
• M. r. masukuensis (Shelley, 1900) – southeast DR Congo, east Zambia and Malawi
• M. r. diligens (Clancey, 1979) – south Angola, north Namibia, southwest Zambia and northwest Botswana
• M. r. pallidiventris (Reichenow, 1885) – Tanzania, south Malawi and north Mozambique
• M. r. stenotopicus (Clancey, 1989) – east Zimbabwe and central west Mozambique

The subspecies M. r. pallidiventris and M. r. stenotopicus have sometimes been considered as a separate species, the cinnamon-breasted tit. It was thought that iris color was a reliable feature to differentiate the two species but a study published in 2015 found that in western Tanzania birds with dark eyes and pale eyes occurred in the same flocks. This suggests that it might be better to consider the cinnamon-breasted tit as a subspecies of the rufous-bellied tit. ^{[5] [6]}

Description

This 15 cm (5.9 in) 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.

Its habitat is subtropical or tropical dry miombo forests.

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Melaniparus rufiventris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T103762287A94310710. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103762287A94310710.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Barbosa du Bocage, José Vicente (1877). "Mélange ornithologique: II Espèces nouvelles d'Angola". Jornal de Sciencias Mathematicas, Physicas e Naturaes (in French). 6: 158-162 [161].
3. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 12. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 103.
4. Jobling, James A. "rufiventris". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Waxwings and their allies, tits & penduline tits". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
6. Anderson, Jason (2015). "Eye colour variation in Rufous-bellied Tit Melaniparus rufiventris in western Tanzania" (PDF). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 135 (2): 98–107.

• Harrap and Quinn, Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers Christopher Helm, 1996 ISBN   0-7136-3964-4

External links

• Rufous-bellied Tit - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.
• Image at ADW