White-browed Tit

Taxobox
name = White-browed Tit


status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Paridae
genus = "Poecile"
species = "P. superciliosus"
binomial = "Poecile superciliosus"
binomial_authority = Przewalski, 1876

The White-browed Tit ("Poecile superciliosus", formerly "Parus superciliosus") is a species of bird in the tit family Paridae. It is endemic to the mountain forests of southwestern China (del Hoyo et al. 2007).

It is 13.5–14 cm long, with a weight of 10–12 g. The plumage pattern is very similar to that of the western North American Mountain Chickadee "P. gambeli" (of which it has on occasion been considered a subspecies, despite its being on a different continent), differing in the breast and cheeks being rusty brown, not white, and having a longer and more sharply defined white eyebrow; the back is also a richer brown, not greyish-brown (del Hoyo et al. 2007).

It breeds in alpine shrub forests of "Berberis", "Rhamnus", "Rhododendron", and "Salix" at 3,200–4,235 m altitude, descending in winter to slightly lower levels where it occurs in coniferous forests, primarily "Picea". It nests on the ground in rock crevices or old rodent burrows (del Hoyo et al. 2007).

The genus name "Poecile" has often been treated as feminine (giving the species name ending "superciliosa"); however, this was not specified by the original genus author Johann Jakob Kaup, and under the ICZN the genus name must therefore be treated by default as masculine, giving the name ending "superciliosus" (del Hoyo et al. 2007).

References

*BirdLife International (2004). [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/52084/all "Parus superciliosus"] . [http://www.iucnredlist.org 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species] . Downloaded on 26 July 2007.
*Del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A., & Christie D. (eds). (2007). "Handbook of the Birds of the World". Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 9788496553422