Family Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalidae)
Least Concern
Sooty Tit (Aegithalos fuliginosus)
Taxonomy
French: Orite à col blanc German: Rußschwanzmeise Spanish: Mito cuelliblanco
Other common names:
Sooty Bushtit
Taxonomy:
Mecistura fuliginosa
J. P. Verreaux
, 1869,“eastern Tibet” = western Sichuan, China
.Distribution:
Mountains of C China N & W of Red Basin: S Gansu S to C & NE Sichuan (Min Shan and Pingwu S to Baoxing, also Daba Shan), E to S Shaanxi (Taibai Shan/Qinling Mts), W Hubei (NW of Yichang) and extreme NW Hunan (NW Shimen#R).
Descriptive notes
11·5 cm; 4–8 g. A typical long-tailed tit in shape, with brownish upperparts, silver-grey facial patch and clear-cut dark breastband. Forehead, centre of crown... read more
Voice
Contact calls include high-pitched, pure, penetrating “see-see-see”; fuller hard,... read more
Habitat
Mixed forest with firs (Abies) and having well-developed deciduous scrub such as willows... read more
Food and feeding
Food insects and berries. Forages in shrub layer. Outside breeding season (from Jun onwards) found in fast-moving parties, with up to 40... read more
Breeding
Presumed to be feeding young in nest in mid-May in Jiuzhaigou (N Sichuan). No other information.
Movements
Resident.
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Restricted range species: present in Central Sichuan Mountains EBA. Generally rather uncommon; quite common in Taibai Shan, in S Shaanxi. World range... read more
Considered so close genetically to A. iouschistos and A. bonvaloti that one species proposed#R and accepted#R, but these two and present species are highly distinct in plumage and retained here on that basis as three species. Historical hybridization of females of present species with male A. bonvaloti judged to have produced this similarity in mtDNA (less obvious in nuDNA)#R. Birds from Hsien Shan Hsien (in W Hubei) described as scurrula, but differences from birds elsewhere in range considered insignificant. Monotypic.