Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Rufous bellied tit

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Kingdom
  
Animalia

Order
  
Passeriformes

Genus
  
Melaniparus

Higher classification
  
Parus

Phylum
  
Chordata

Family
  
Paridae

Scientific name
  
Parus rufiventris

Rank
  
Species

Rufous-bellied tit httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Similar
  
Miombo tit, Bird, Acacia tit, Ashy tit, White‑bellied tit

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.

References

Rufous-bellied tit Wikipedia