The rufous-fronted bushtit or rufous-fronted tit (''Aegithalos iouschistos'') is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

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 lightweigh ...

of the eastern and central

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

belonging to the long-tailed tit family, Aegithalidae.

Taxonomy and systematics

The rufous-fronted bushtit forms a superspecies with the

black-browed bushtit The black-browed bushtit or black-browed tit (''Aegithalos bonvaloti'') is a species of bird in the family Aegithalidae. It is found in mid-southern China and sporadically in Myanmar. Its natural habitats are boreal forests and temperate forests ...

and white-throated bushtit. They have sometimes been regarded as a single

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

but are now usually treated as distinct. The ranges of the rufous-fronted and black-browed bushtits overlap slightly in China with no evidence of hybridization.

Description

The rufous-fronted bushtit is 11 cm long. The adult has grey upperparts and reddish-brown underparts. The head is reddish-buff with a black mask and a silver bib with black streaks and a black edge. Juveniles are paler and duller than the adults. The black-browed bushtit is similar but has a white forehead and belly and a white edge to its bib. The white-throated bushtit has a white forehead and bib and a dark breastband.

Distribution and habitat

The rufous-fronted bushtit is found in the eastern and central Himalayas in Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. It occurs in

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

s, both broad-leaved and coniferous, up to 3,600 m above sea-level. It typically feeds in flocks.

References

* Grimmett, Richard, Carol Inskipp & Tim Inskipp (1999) ''Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent'', Christopher Helm, London. * MacKinnon, John & Karen Phillipps (2000) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of China'', Oxford University Press, Oxford.

External links

Oriental Bird Images: Rufous-fronted bushtit
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1590485

rufous-fronted bushtit The rufous-fronted bushtit or rufous-fronted tit (''Aegithalos iouschistos'') is a small passerine bird of the eastern and central Himalayas belonging to the long-tailed tit family, Aegithalidae. Taxonomy and systematics The rufous-fronted bush ...

Birds of Bhutan Birds of Northeast India Birds of Nepal