Rufous-bellied Tit

The rufous-bellied tit (Melaniparus rufiventris) is a species of bird in the tit family. It is found in Africa from the Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Namibia east to Tanzania and northern Mozambique. == Taxonomy == The rufous-bellied tit was formally described in 1877 by the Portuguese zoologist José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage based on a specimen collected near the town of Caconda in central Angola. He placed it with the tits in the genus Parus and coined the binomial name Parus rufiventris. The specific epithet is Modern Latin meaning "red-bellied", from Latin rufus meaning "ruddy" or "rufous" and venter, ventris meaning "belly". The rufous-bellied tit is now one of 14 tits placed in the genus Melaniparus that was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Five subspecies are recognised: M. r. rufiventris (Barboza du Bocage, 1877) – south Congo and south DR Congo to central Angola and central Zambia M. r. masukuensis (Shelley, 1900) – southeast DR Congo, east Zambia and Malawi M. r. diligens (Clancey, 1979) – south Angola, north Namibia, southwest Zambia and northwest Botswana M. r. pallidiventris (Reichenow, 1885) – Tanzania, south Malawi and north Mozambique M.…