Grey tit explained

The grey tit (Melaniparus afer) 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.

Taxonomy

The grey tit was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the tits in the genus Parus and coined the binomial name Parus afer.^{[1] [2]} Gmelin based his account on the "black-breasted titmouse" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a specimen from the Cape of Good Hope that formed part of the collection of the naturalist Joseph Banks.^[3] The grey tit was moved to the genus Melaniparus based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 that found that a group of species formed a distinct clade. The genus Melaniparus had been introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.^{[4] [5]} The genus name combines the Ancient Greek melas, melanos "black" and the genus Parus introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The specific epithet afer is Latin meaning "African".^[6]

Two subspecies are recognised:^[5]

• M. a. arens (Clancey, 1963) – south South Africa and Lesotho
• M. a. afer (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – Namibia and west South Africa

External links

• (Southern) grey tit - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.

Notes and References

1. Book: Gmelin, Johann Friedrich . Johann Friedrich Gmelin. 1789 . Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis . 13th . 1, Part 2 . Latin . Lipsiae [Leipzig] . Georg. Emanuel. Beer . 1010 .
2. Book: Paynter . Raymond A. Jr . 1986 . Check-list of Birds of the World . 12 . Museum of Comparative Zoology . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 100 .
3. Book: Latham, John . John Latham (ornithologist) . 1783 . A General Synopsis of Birds . 2, Part 2 . Printed for Leigh and Sotheby . London . 539 No. 6 .
4. 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.
5. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela Rasmussen . January 2023 . Waxwings and their allies, tits & penduline tits . IOC World Bird List Version 13.1 . International Ornithologists' Union . 15 April 2023 .
6. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 246, 35.