The grey penduline tit (''Anthoscopus caroli''), also known as the African penduline-tit, is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

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 ...

, Burundi, Republic of the Congo,

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, Eswatini,

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeas ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

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 ...

, Rwanda,

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 ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, 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 subtropical or

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

dry

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, dry

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

, and moist savanna. At in length and a weight of , it is one of the smallest species of bird found in Africa, along with its cousin the

Cape penduline tit The Cape penduline tit or southern penduline tit (''Anthoscopus minutus'') is a species of bird in the family Remizidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are dry savannah, subtropical o ...

and the perhaps smaller mouse-colored penduline tit and the

tit hylia The tit hylia (''Pholidornis rushiae'') is a species of bird, monotypic within the genus ''Pholidornis''. It is found in rainforests in West and Central Africa. It had been placed in the family Cettiidae, but in 2019 its assignment to a new famil ...

Taxonomy

The grey penduline tit was formally described in 1871 by the English ornithologist

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mo ...

from a specimen that had been collected in the Ovaquenyama or

Oukwanyama Oukwanyama (''Uukwanyama'' in the neighbouring Oshindonga dialect) is a traditional kingdom of the Ovambo people in what is today northern Namibia and southern Angola. Its capital is Ehole. List of rulers The Oukwanyama Kingdom and King Mandume M ...

district of Damaraland. This is now northern Namibia. Sharpe coined the binomial name ''Aegithalus caroli''. This tit is now placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 ''caroli'' is from

Late Latin Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...

''Carolus'' for "Charles". This was chosen to honour the Swedish explorer

Karl Johan Andersson Karl John (Karl Johan) Andersson (4 March 1827 in Norra Råda Värmland, Sweden – 9 July 1867 in Angola) was a Swedish explorer, hunter and trader as well as an amateur naturalist and ornithologist. He is most famous for the many books he pub ...

. Eleven subspecies are recognised: * ''A. c. roccatii'' Salvadori, 1906 Uganda, northeast DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, west Kenya and northwest Tanzania * ''A. c. pallescens'' Ulfstrand, 1960 – west Tanzania * ''A. c. ansorgei'' Hartert, E, 1905 – Congo, west DR Congo to central Angola * ''A. c. rhodesiae'' Sclater, WL, 1932 – southeast DR Congo, north Zambia and southwest Tanzania * ''A. c. robertsi'' Haagner, 1909 – southeast Kenya to ne Zambia, Malawi and north Mozambique * ''A. c. caroli'' ( Sharpe, 1871) – south Angola and southwest Zambia to north Namibia and north Botswana * ''A. c. winterbottomi'' White, CMN, 1946 – south DR Congo and northwest Zambia * ''A. c. rankinei''

Irwin Irwin may refer to: Places ;United States * Irwin, California * Irwin, Idaho * Irwin, Illinois * Irwin, Iowa * Irwin, Nebraska * Irwin, Ohio * Irwin, Pennsylvania * Irwin, South Carolina * Irwin County, Georgia * Irwin Township, Venango County ...

, 1963 – northeast Zimbabwe * ''A. c. hellmayri'' Roberts, 1914 – east, south Zimbabwe, south Mozambique and northeast South Africa * ''A. c. sylviella'' Reichenow, 1904 – south-central Kenya to central Tanzania * ''A. c. sharpei'' Hartert, E, 1905 – southwest Kenya to north Tanzania The race ''A. c. sylviella'', found in parts of Kenya and Tanzania, is sometimes regarded as a separate species, the buff-bellied penduline-tit.

References

External links

* Grey Penduline Tit
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
grey penduline tit Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa grey penduline tit Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Remizidae-stub