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Sooty Tit Aegithalos fuliginosus Scientific name definitions

Simon Harrap
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated October 16, 2014

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Field Identification

11·5 cm; 4–8 g. A typical long-tailed tit  in shape, with brownish upperparts, silver-grey facial patch and clear-cut dark breastband. Forehead, centre of crown and nape are dark brown, slightly paler and greyer at sides; lores, supercilium and cheek area contrastingly frosty pale grey, grading at rear into brown nape and demarcated below by grey-brown moustachial stripe; upperparts  and upperwing dark brown, rump paler and pinker; tail dark brown, outer 3–4 feather pairs tipped white, outermost with white outer web; throat pale grey, finely streaked whiter (becoming sooty brown when plumage worn), bordered below by white side of neck and uppermost breast, these in turn bordered by broad brown breastband ; belly white, rear flanks and vent pinkish, variably mottled brown or cinnamon on flanks and white on vent, undertail-coverts mixed brown and white; iris white, yellow or yellowish-brown; bill and legs black. Differs from A. bonvaloti in duller brown breastband and flanks, silvery cheek patch, and lack of dark “V” on throat and of bold blackish mask; from A. concinnus in lack of black mask and throat. Sexes alike. Juvenile has forehead and centre of crown white (broad white crownstripe), side of crown contrastingly darker, cheek pale grey with slightly paler supercilium and blackish wedge behind eye, throat purer white, breastband rather dark , remainder of underparts whitish (lacking pinkish on flanks).

Systematics History

Considered so close genetically to A. iouschistos and A. bonvaloti that one species proposed (1) and accepted (2), but these two and present species are highly distinct in plumage and retained here on that basis as three species. Historical hybridization of females of present species with male A. bonvaloti judged to have produced this similarity in mtDNA (less obvious in nuDNA) (3). Birds from Hsien Shan Hsien (in W Hubei) described as scurrula, but differences from birds elsewhere in range considered insignificant. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Mountains of C China N & W of Red Basin: S Gansu S to C & NE Sichuan (Min Shan and Pingwu S to Baoxing, also Daba Shan), E to S Shaanxi (Taibai Shan/Qinling Mts), W Hubei (NW of Yichang) and extreme NW Hunan (NW Shimen (4) ).

Habitat

Mixed forest with firs (Abies) and having well-developed deciduous scrub such as willows (Salix) and birches (Betula) along the watercourses, rhododendrons (Rhododendron) and often an extensive bamboo understorey; also prickly oak (Quercus coccifera) forest. Favours lower parts of temperate zone, extending down into subtropical zone (although perhaps only in non-breeding season); recorded at c. 1000–2600 m, with concentration in lower part of altitudinal range in winter.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

Food insects and berries. Forages in shrub layer. Outside breeding season (from Jun onwards) found in fast-moving parties , with up to 40 individuals recorded together.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Contact calls include high-pitched, pure, penetrating “see-see-see”  ; fuller hard, clipped “tup”, usually interspersed with single high “tsip” notes; explosive, slurred, rattling “tchrrrup” (slightly harsher than equivalent call of A. caudatus). Apparent “song” a quiet, jumbled, twittering and trilling; as A. caudatus, probably lacks a true territorial song.

 

Breeding

Presumed to be feeding young in nest in mid-May in Jiuzhaigou (N Sichuan). No other information.

Not globally threatened. Restricted range species: present in Central Sichuan Mountains EBA. Generally rather uncommon; quite common in Taibai Shan, in S Shaanxi. World range covers area of only c. 20,000–50,000 km².

Distribution of the Sooty Tit - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Sooty Tit

Recommended Citation

Harrap, S. (2020). Sooty Tit (Aegithalos fuliginosus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.sootit1.01
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