Southern Black Tit (Melaniparus niger) [XC199453]
by Keith Blomerley from Mabusa, Nkangala, Mpumalanga, South Africa (call)
Southern Black Tit (Melaniparus niger) [XC623346]
by Lynette Rudman from Ndlambe Local Municipality (near Emabaleni), Western District, Eastern Cape, South Africa (song)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with White-winged Tit (Melaniparus leucomelas), Pale-eyed Black Tit (Melaniparus guineensis), Carp's Tit (Melaniparus carpi) and White-bellied Tit (Melaniparus albiventris), possibly also including White-backed Black Tit (Melaniparus leuconotus). Has been considered conspecific with White-winged Tit (Melaniparus leucomelas), but the two appear not to interbreed in area of range overlap in Malawi and Zambia. Subspecies intergrade widely and boundaries imperfectly known.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
xanthostomus (Shelley, 1892) - South-eastern Angola, central and southern Zambia, south-western Tanzania, north-eastern Namibia, northern and eastern Botswana and northern South Africa (North West Province).
ravidus (Clancey, 1964) - Eastern Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and central Mozambique south to extreme northern South Africa (northern Limpopo Province).
niger (Vieillot, 1818) - Southern Mozambique south to Swaziland and eastern South Africa (south to eastern Cape).
carpi (Vieillot, 1818) - South-western Angola and northern and western Namibia. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Carp's Tit (Melaniparus carpi).