Stripe-breasted Tit Melaniparus fasciiventer Scientific name definitions

14 cm; 14–15 g. Large tit with black head, and black stripe on white belly. Male nominate race has entire head to nape, neck side, throat and breast black, this colour tapering onto centre of upper belly (in fresh plumage, faintly glossed bluish on crown, nape, throat and breast); upperparts grey, washed brown, tips of longest uppertail-coverts blackish; tail black, narrowly tipped white (white may be lacking on central pair), outermost feather broadly edged white; upperwing-coverts black, fringed and more broadly tipped white, alula black, narrowly fringed whitish; flight-feathers black or blackish-grey, tertials broadly fringed and tipped whitish, secondaries and primaries finely fringed whitish, bases of outer primaries more broadly edged whitish (forming small patch); side of lower breast to flanks and undertail-coverts white, duller or brownish on flanks; axillaries and underwing-coverts white; iris reddish-brown to deep brown; bill black; legs bluish-grey to slate-grey or greenish. Female has slightly browner head to breast and upper belly than male. Juvenile is as adult, but head to breast more sooty brown or duller brown (with blackish feather bases on throat, neck side and upper breast), narrow blackish stripe on centre of upper belly, rest of underparts tinged buffish or yellowish, upperparts tinged browner, less white at tips of tail, also tips of median and greater coverts yellowish-buff, edges of secondaries and primaries dingy yellowish-white. Race <em>tanganjicae</em> is as nominate female, but male has head to breast browner, with more obvious small black cap, blackish-grey on centre of throat down to belly stripe, rest of underparts more heavily washed buffish; kaboboensis has head and breast to centre of belly as nominate (female has paler brown breast), but upperparts more visibly washed bluish-grey, and rest of underparts darker grey except for whiter undertail-coverts.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Montane forests, including Hagenia woodland, with bamboo and well-developed undergrowth; also tree-heath and gallery forest. Highlands and mountains; in Uganda at 1800–3400 m, and SW Rwanda widespread above 2300 m in Nyungwe Forest.

Diet poorly known, but presumably includes small invertebrates and larvae; nestlings fed mainly with caterpillars. Usually in small to medium-sized groups of presumed family parties; occasionally in mixed-species foraging flocks with M. funereus and white-eyes (Zosterops). Fairly tame and approachable. Forages usually in upper or canopy level , also visiting smaller trees along forest edge and in clearings; may descend to lower levels of trees, but rarely in forest undergrowth. Feeds in busy probing fashion among foliage, including dead leaves and branches suspended in canopy, and creepers; also probes bark.

Calls include soft “whit” or “whip” contact note and sharp or more strident “chit” or “tit”, also lower-pitched “dzerr” or grating “grrr” or trilling “tititirrrrrrrr” that may be included in longer sequence e.g. “tititi-grr-ti-grr”, or with ringing “pseet” into longer series as e.g. “chit-chit-char-char, pseeet char-char, chi-chit-char, chit-chit-char-char…” or “chur-chur-chur-chur”; also gives thin “chit-lilit”; in alarm a short “chrit” note, often extended into longer scolding “chrit-it-it-it-it-it…” and may be combined in distinctive frog-like “chrit-chit-chit crud-y crud-y chrit-it-it-it-it-it”. Song a repeated “tea-cher” phrase, like that of P. major.

A 15-year study of a nest-box population in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda, contrasts the life history traits of this equatorial Parid with north temperate races of the Great Tit P. major, a similar-sized and very well studied species. Stripe-breasted Tits fledged a mean of just 1.62 offspring per clutch, but laid up to four clutches per year (mean 1.72) over 11 calendar months, raising their mean annual fecundity to 3.09 fledglings per female, less than half that of European Great Tits but double that of single-brooded southern African congeners. In Stripe-breasted Tits the mean incubation period was 15.1 days and the nestling period 23.5 days. During incubation, Stripe-breasted and Great Tit females showed similar levels of nest attentiveness but, in contrast, Stripe-breasted Tit parents provisioned at just 10–18 % of the rates recorded for European Great Tits, suggesting that parental investment or prey availability in their respective habitats differed to a similar degree. Consequently, Stripe-breasted Tit nestlings grew more slowly, remained in the nest 4.6 days (20 %) longer, but fledged with proportionately longer wings, perhaps improving their ability to avoid predation. Offspring were last recorded receiving parental care at a mean of 81 days post-fledging (four times longer than is typical of European Great Tits) and remained with their parents for up to three years. Helpers were recorded at 61 % of Stripe-breasted Tit nests, and 76 % of breeding adults had helpers during at least one breeding attempt (2 Shaw, P., Owoyesigire, N., Ngabirano, S. and Ebbutt, D. (2015). Life history traits associated with low annual fecundity in a central African Parid: the Stripe-breasted Tit Parus fasciiventer. Journal of Ornithology. 156: 209–221. Close ).