Southern Black Tit (Melaniparus niger) - BirdLife species factsheet

Southern Black Tit Melaniparus niger

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic note

Melaniparus niger and M. carpi (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) were previously lumped as Parus niger following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993) and Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Species attributes

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	22 g

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	3,810,000 km²	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	poor	estimated	2009
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	2.69 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The population in South Africa is estimated at 10,000,000 individuals and the population in Mozambique has been estimated at 500,000 individuals (del Hoyo et al. 2007). This species is considered to have a medium dependency on forest habitat, and tree cover is estimated to have declined by 13.8% within its mapped range over the past 10 years (Global Forest Watch 2022, using Hansen et al. [2013] data and methods disclosed therein). Therefore, as a precautionary measure, it is tentatively suspected that this loss of cover may have led to a decline of between 1-19% in the species' population size over the same time frame.

Trend justification: .

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident
Angola	extant	native	yes
Botswana	extant	native	yes
Eswatini	extant	native	yes
Malawi	extant	native	yes
Mozambique	extant	native	yes
Namibia	extant	native	yes
South Africa	extant	native	yes
Zambia	extant	native	yes
Zimbabwe	extant	native	yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Urban Areas	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	major	resident
Savanna	Dry	major	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 1880 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Southern Black Tit Melaniparus niger. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/southern-black-tit-melaniparus-niger on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.