Grey tit

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.

Grey tit
At Namaqua National Park, Northern Cape, South Africa
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. afer
Binomial name
Melaniparus afer (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
Synonyms
Parus afer

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.^[2][3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5][6] 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".^[7]

Two subspecies are recognised:^[6]

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

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Melaniparus afer". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22711902A94311823. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22711902A94311823.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 2 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 1010.
3. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 12. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 100.
4. Latham, John (1783). A General Synopsis of Birds. Vol. 2, Part 2. London: Printed for Leigh and Sotheby. p. 539 No. 6.
5. 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. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.019. PMID 23831453.
6. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2023). "Waxwings and their allies, tits & penduline tits". IOC World Bird List Version 13.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
7. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 246, 35. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.

External links

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