| Southern black tit | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paridae |
| Genus: | Melaniparus |
| Species: | M. niger |
| Binomial name | |
| Melaniparus niger (Vieillot, 1818) | |
 | |
| resident range | |
| Synonyms | |
Parus niger | |
The southern black tit or simply black tit (Melaniparus niger) is a species of bird in the tit family Paridae, which is native to woodland habitats in southern Africa.
Three subspecies are recognized: [2] [3]
It occurs chiefly in tropical and subtropical savanna woodland, in a semicircular arc from Angola to the Eastern Cape, South Africa. [4] It prefers woodland dominated by broad-leaved trees, most importantly miombo, Combretum species, and Burkea africana . [5] It is especially common in the woodlands of western Zimbabwe, where densities can reach as high as fifty birds per square kilometre. [5]
The southern black tit, unlike parids of the Northern Hemisphere or other local species, is almost entirely monotone in colour and sexually somewhat dimorphic, [6] with the female being greyish and the male very distinctly blue-black in colour. It can be distinguished from the white-winged tit and Carp's tit by having no white rim in its tail [7] and is around 16 centimetres (6 in) in total length including the tail. [6]
Like all tits, it feeds chiefly on insects, and is a voracious consumer of wasps in its favoured habitat; however, it has unusually for a parid been known to take nectar and fruiting figs. [5]
Breeding occurs during the summer wet season, but its initiation is very varied and the number of broods reared depends on the consistency of rainfall. The breeding system of the southern black tit has been intensively studied and is often regarded [8] as a classic example of the differences in breeding strategies between warm regions with unpredictable rainfall and cold regions with severe winters. Unlike the great tit or blue tit which can provision up to twenty-five nestlings per year in unassisted pairs, the southern black tit, living on a much poorer food supply, [9] can as an unassisted pair seldom provision even one nestling in a breeding season. [8] As a result, most males must stay in the parental territory for several years to help rear the usually three nestlings that each breeding female produces under favourable conditions. An interesting feature of the southern black tit is that the breeding female, who incubates continuously during the fifteen days of incubation and is fed by her mate and the helpers, will mimic venomous snakes when she feels threatened to prevent depredation of the nest. [10]
Although the species has been recovered from ringing on only a few occasions and data about survival and longevity are thus useless, [11] it is practically certain that the adult mortality rate is much lower than the 70 to 75 percent mortality of closely related parids in Europe and North America. [12]
The southern black 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. [13] [14]
The tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute the Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and Africa. Most were formerly classified in the genus Parus.
The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland; most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters. Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies. DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia. The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.
The white-winged black tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is also known as the white-winged tit, dark-eyed black tit or northern black tit. The species was first described by Eduard Rüppell in 1840.
The white-browed sparrow-weaver is a predominantly brown, sparrow-sized bird found throughout central and north-central southern Africa. It is found in groups of two to eleven individuals consisting of one breeding pair and other non-reproductive individuals.
The sabota lark is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae. It is found in southern Africa in its natural habitats of dry savannah, moist savannah, and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. It is generally sedentary but local movements occur in drier regions. The species name is derived from sebotha or sebothé, the Tswana generic name for a lark.
The fawn-coloured lark or fawn-coloured bush-lark is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae. It is found in south-central Africa.
The chinspot batis is a small songbird of the genus Batis in the family Platysteiridae which is a common and widespread species in the woodlands of southern Africa from the Eastern Cape north to 3°N in southern Kenya and Gabon. It forms a superspecies with other rather similar members of the genus Batis.
The rattling cisticola is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae which is native to Africa south of the equator, and parts of East Africa. It is a common to abundant species in open savanna and scrubland habitats, whether in arid, moist or upland regions. Especially during summer, it is highly conspicuous due to its strident and repetitive call-notes from prominent perches.
The grey tit is a species of bird in the tit family Paridae. It is found in Lesotho and South Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation.
The ashy tit is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and dry savanna.
The miombo tit is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests.
The white-backed black tit, also known as the white-backed tit, is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Its natural habitat is boreal forests.
The rufous-bellied tit is a species of bird in the tit family.
The acacia tit, also known as the Somali tit and northern grey tit, is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is native to north eastern Africa where it occurs in dry acacia habitat.
The broad-tailed paradise whydah is a species of bird in the family Viduidae. It is found woodland and acacia savanna habitat in Sub-Saharan Africa from Angola to Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. A brood parasite, it has a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as being of least concern.
Melaniparus is a genus of birds in the tit family. The species were formerly placed in the speciose genus Parus but were moved to Melaniparus based on a molecular phylogenetic analysis published in 2013 that showed that the members formed a distinct clade. The genus Melaniparus had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850. The type species was subsequently designated as the southern black tit. The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek melas, melanos "black" and the genus Parus introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.
Carp's tit or Carp's black tit, is a species of bird in the family Paridae. Some authors consider it a subspecies of the black tit. It is found throughout the Namibian savanna woodlands and the southern Angolan mopane woodlands.
The white-shouldered black tit, also known as the pale-eyed black tit, is a passerine bird in the tit family. It breeds in a belt across Africa from Senegal in the west to Kenya and Ethiopia in the east. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the more southerly white-winged black tit Melaniparus leucomelas and, like that species, it is mainly black with a white wing patch, but differs in that it has a pale eye.
The southern red-billed hornbill is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae, which is native to the savannas and dryer bushlands of southern Africa. It is replaced by a near-relative, the Damara red-billed hornbill, in the arid woodlands of western Namibia. All five red-billed hornbills were formerly considered conspecific.
The cinnamon-breasted tit is passerine bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitat is miombo woodland.
