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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

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 Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

belonging to the long-tailed tit family,

Aegithalidae The bushtits or long-tailed tits are small passerine birds from the family (biology), family Aegithalidae, containing 13 species in three genera, all but one of which (''Psaltriparus'') are found in Eurasia. Bushtits are active birds with long t ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The rufous-fronted bushtit forms a

superspecies In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

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 The white-throated bushtit (''Aegithalos niveogularis''), also known as the white-throated tit, is a species of bird in the family Aegithalidae. It is found in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist mon ...

. They have sometimes been regarded as a single

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

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 Birds of Bhutan Birds of Northeast India Birds of Nepal rufous-fronted bushtit rufous-fronted bushtit