White-winged Black Tit (Melaniparus leucomelas) [XC300451]
by Peter Boesman from Simbo resort, Lake Langano, Ethiopia (song)
White-winged Black Tit (Melaniparus leucomelas) [XC508998]
by Dries Van de Loock from Minyanya plain, North-western province, Zambia (song)
Subspecies
White-winged Tit (Melaniparus leucomelas) and Pale-eyed Black Tit (Melaniparus guineensis) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Parus leucomelas following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993).
Forms a superspecies with Pale-eyed Black Tit (Melaniparus guineensis), Southern Black Tit (Melaniparus niger), Carp's Tit (Melaniparus carpi) and White-bellied Tit (Melaniparus albiventris), possibly also including White-backed Black Tit (Melaniparus leuconotus). Often considered conspecific with Pale-eyed Black Tit (Melaniparus guineensis), and the two occur in mixed flocks in Uganda, but they differ in eye colour, and no evidence of intergrades. Further research required.
Possibly closer to Southern Black Tit (Melaniparus niger), and sometimes considered conspecific with it, but the two appear not to interbreed in area of range overlap in Malawi and Zambia.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
leucomelas (Rüppell, 1840) - Central and south-eastern Ethiopia.
insignis (Cabanis, 1880) - Southern Gabon and southern PR Congo east to eastern DRCongo, south-western Uganda, western Rwanda, northern Burundi and north-western and central Tanzania, south to Angola, Zambia and Malawi.