The pygmy bushtit (''Aegithalos exilis'') is a species of
bird in the bushtit family
Aegithalidae. The species was once placed, along with the rest of its family, with the true tits,
Paridae.
It is
endemic to
Indonesia, where it occurs only on the island of
Java. On Java it is restricted to montane forests and plantations above and occasionally down to in the west of the island. It frequents conifer forest and other open forest types, and is often encountered on the forest edge.
The pygmy bushtit is the smallest member of its family, and the smallest
passerine. It is in length.
The pygmy bushtit was formerly placed in its own
monotypic genus ''Psaltria''. It was moved to the current genus ''
Aegithalos'' based on the results of a
molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
study published in 2016.
References
pygmy bushtit
Birds of Java
pygmy bushtit
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN
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