Melaniparus (Parus) niger
One of the trickiest birds to photograph in South Africa in my personal opinion, owing to the seemingly tireless fashion with which they move while foraging through the trees, is the Southern Black Tit. It is a bird most closely associated with woodlands dominated by broad-leaved trees and less commonly found in Acacia savannas, forests, plantations and gardens. These tits feed mainly on insects, even pecking open seeds and thorns to reach larvae inside, though they will also consume fruit and nectar given the opportunity.
Southern Black Tits are usually encountered in small groups, consisting mostly of a territorial and monogamous breeding pair and up to four helpers, and often in association with other small insectivorous bird species. They breed during spring and summer, when the dominant female in the group furnishes her nest in a cavity in a tree using grass, lichen, hair and soft leaves and lays a clutch of one to six (usually 3) eggs. The female also takes sole responsibility for the incubation of the eggs over a two week period, during which she occasionally leaves the nest to go foraging. When the chicks hatch they are fed by all the group members, and although they fledge when they’re about 3-4 weeks old they don’t start feeding themselves for another two weeks or so afterwards. The chicks are fully independent at between 2 and 3 months of age. Adults weigh approximately 21g, measuring around 16cm in length.
In South Africa, Southern Black Tits can be found from the Eastern Cape, through Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng to the Limpopo and North West provinces. They are also found in parts of eSwatini (Swaziland), Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Malawi. The IUCN considers the Southern Black Tit to be of least concern, estimating the South African population alone at around 10-million.
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