White-winged black tit explained

The white-winged black tit (Melaniparus leucomelas) 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.^[1] The species was first described by Eduard Rüppell in 1840.

Description

It is mainly black with a white wing patch, but differs from the more northern white-shouldered tit (Melaniparus guineensis) with which it sometimes considered conspecific in that it has a dark eye.

Range and races

It is found in central Africa, from Angola in the west to Ethiopia in the east. There are two races:^[2]

• M. l. subsp. leucomelas Rüppell, 1840 – Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan
• M. l. subsp. insignis Cabanis, 1880 – African equator to southern subtropics

Taxonomy

The white-winged 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.^{[3] [4]}

References

• Gill . Frank B. . Fred Sheldon (ornithologist) . Slikas . Beth . Sheldon . Frederick H. . 2005 . Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae): II. Species relationships based on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene . . 122 . 1. 121–143 . 10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[0121:POTPIS]2.0.CO;2 .

External links

• • • Sound recordings, xeno-canto

Notes and References

1. Gosler, A. & Clement, P. (2019). "Dark-eyed Black Tit (Melaniparus leucomelas)". In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D. A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
2. Web site: White-winged Black Tit (Parus leucomelas) - HBW 12, p. 731. Internet Bird Collection. 27 June 2016.
3. 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 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.019 . 23831453.
4. Web site: Gill . Frank . Donsker . David . Waxwings and their allies, tits & penduline tits . World Bird List Version 6.1 . International Ornithologists' Union. 15 February 2016 .