• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Climate Change maps
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note

Melaniparus leuconotus (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) was previously listed as Parus leuconotus.

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.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

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

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	606,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

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

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be poorly known (Urban et al. 1997). This species is considered to have a medium dependency on forest habitat, and tree cover is estimated to have declined by 3.2% 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	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Eritrea	extant	native	yes
Ethiopia	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Eritrea	Senafe
Ethiopia	Bahir Dar - Lake Tana
Ethiopia	Bale Mountains National Park
Ethiopia	Berga floodplain
Ethiopia	Bonga forest
Ethiopia	Borana-Saynt (Denkoro Forest)
Ethiopia	Chilimo-Gaji forest
Ethiopia	Entoto Natural Park and escarpment
Ethiopia	Gefersa reservoir
Ethiopia	Jemma and Jara valleys
Ethiopia	Jibat forest
Ethiopia	Menagesha State Forest
Ethiopia	Mount Zuquala
Ethiopia	Mugo highlands
Ethiopia	Simien Mountains National Park
Ethiopia	Sululta plain
Ethiopia	Tiro Boter - Becho forest
Ethiopia	Yegof forest

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	major	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude	major	resident
Altitude	1370 - 4130 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Purpose	Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: White-backed Black Tit Melaniparus leuconotus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/white-backed-black-tit-melaniparus-leuconotus on 23/12/2024.
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 23/12/2024.