| White-winged Black Tit | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paridae |
| Genus: | Parus |
| Species: | P. leucomelas |
| Binomial name | |
| Parus leucomelas Rüppell, 1840 |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Melaniparus leucomelas |
|
The White-winged Black Tit Parus leucomelas, also known as the White-winged Tit, is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is found in central Africa, from Angola in the west to Ethiopia in the east.
It is mainly black with a white wing patch, but differs from the more northern White-shouldered Tit Parus guineensis with which it sometimes considered conspecific in that it has a dark eye.
It is sometimes separated in the genus Melaniparus, which is a group of usually dark species from Africa. Analysis of its mtDNA cytochrome b sequence (Gill et al., 2005) indicates that these birds may indeed form a clade, but the interrelationships of the species between them and with the Parus sensu strictissimo ist not resolved enough at present; it appears however that separating Melaniparus as a genus and not just a subgenus of Parus is unwarranted.