The white-shouldered black tit (''Melaniparus guineensis''), also known as the pale-eyed black tit, is a

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 th ...

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 tit family. It breeds in a belt across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

from

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

in the west to

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

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

in the east. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the more southerly white-winged black tit ''Melaniparus leucomelas'' and, like that species, it is mainly black with a white wing patch, but differs in that it has a pale eye. It is a resident in coniferous woodlands throughout its range, and nests in tree crevice. 4-6 reddish-brown blotched pinkish-white eggs are laid. The white-shouldered black tit was formerly one of the many species in the genus ''

Parus ''Parus'' is a genus of Old World birds in the tit family. It was formerly a large genus containing most of the 50 odd species in the family Paridae. The genus was split into several resurrected genera following the publication of a detailed mo ...

'' but was moved to '' Melaniparus'' after a molecular phylogenetic analysis published in 2013 showed that birds in the new genus formed a distinct clade.

References

*Harrap and Quinn, ''Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers'' white-shouldered black tit Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa white-shouldered black tit {{Paridae-stub