The Cape penduline tit or southern penduline tit (''Anthoscopus minutus'') is a species of bird in the family Remizidae. It is found in

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are dry savannah, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation. At in length, it is one of the smallest species of bird found in Africa, along with its cousins the grey penduline tit and the mouse-coloured penduline tit.''Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi'' by Stevenson & Fanshawe. Elsevier Science (2001),

Taxonomy

The Cape penduline tit was formally described and illustrated in 1812 by the English naturalist George Shaw under the binomial name ''Sylvia minuta''. The species is now placed in the genus ''

Anthoscopus ''Anthoscopus'' is a genus of birds in the penduline tit family Remizidae. The genus is restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa, where it ranges from the Sahel to South Africa. Unlike many of the Eurasian penduline, these species are not generally bird ...

'' that was introduced in 1851 by the German ornithologist

Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 1 ...

. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''anthos'' meaning "blossom" or "flower" with ''skopos'' meaning "searcher". The specific epithet ''minutus'' is Latin meaning "little". Three subspecies are recognised: * ''A. m. damarensis'' Reichenow, 1905 – west Angola and north Namibia, north, east Botswana, Zimbabwe and north South Africa * ''A. m. gigi'' Winterbottom, 1959 – south South Africa * ''A. m. minutus'' ( Shaw, 1812) – west, south Namibia, southwest Botswana and west, central South Africa

Behaviour

Breeding

They build a globular nest made of the webs of ''

Stegodyphus ''Stegodyphus'' is a genus of velvet spiders that was first described by Eugène Simon in 1873. They are distributed from Africa to Europe and Asia, with one species (''S. manaus'') found in Brazil. The name is derived from Ancient Greek ('' st ...

'' spiders as well as silken fibre from various plants. An entrance hole is made on the side and towards the end, a false entry and chamber are constructed below the actual entrance to the nest chamber. The spout at the entrance has a separating septum with the entrance to the actual nest chamber at the upper portion, the septum pushed up with its forehead to close the upper entrance by the bird just before leaving the nest so as to show only the main entrance leading into a blind chamber. This is a defence against snakes and other nest predators.

References

External links

* Cape Penduline Tit
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
Anthoscopus Birds of Southern Africa Birds described in 1812 Taxa named by George Shaw Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Remizidae-stub