The grey penduline tit (''Anthoscopus caroli''), also known as the African penduline-tit, is a species of bird in the family Remizidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

, South Africa, Tanzania,

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It 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 ...

, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, dry savanna, 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, subtrop ...

and the perhaps smaller mouse-colored penduline tit and the tit hylia.

Taxonomy

The grey penduline tit was formally described in 1871 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe from a specimen that had been collected in the Ovaquenyama or Oukwanyama district of Damaraland. This is now northern Namibia. Sharpe coined the binomial name ''Aegithalus caroli''. This tit is now placed in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''anthos'' meaning "blossom" or "flower" with ''skopos'' meaning "searcher". The specific epithet ''caroli'' is from Late Latin ''Carolus'' for "Charles". This was chosen to honour the Swedish explorer Karl Johan Andersson. 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, 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