African blue tit

The African blue tit (Cyanistes teneriffae) is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in northern Africa and the Canary Islands. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. This species and the Eurasian blue tit were formerly considered conspecific. The status of this species has not been assessed because it is noted to be common on the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria. The species has been used in many research studies due to its island populations and relevance to evolutionary hypotheses.[2]

African blue tit

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Paridae
Genus: Cyanistes
Species:
C. teneriffae
Binomial name
Cyanistes teneriffae
(Lesson, 1831)
Synonyms

Parus teneriffae Lesson, 1831

Location

The African blue tit is found in Northern Africa and the Canary Islands. It is wide spread on the Islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, but scarce in local populations on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.[3]

Description

The African blue tit ranges from 11 – 12 cm in size.[3] It is a small, sharp-billed, compact tit. The nominate race has a forehead and supercilium to centre of nape white, crown deep glossy blue, becoming blackish on the neck, with a blue dorsal and yellow ventral body. The song is a variable repetition of one or two notes.[3]

Diet

The species is known to consume a variety of caterpillars.[4] The diet is not significantly different from C. caeruleus.

Habitat

The African blue tit prefers temperate forests, both low and high lying.[3][4] Lowlands area preferred on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, but populations on Tenerife and Gran Canaria prefer montane forests.

Breeding

The species breeds from February to July, and also possibly from October to January. It usually breeds earlier at lower levels compared to in montane areas.[4] Egg-laying occurs when the photoperiod is longer, and extra-pair mates are chosen and synchronises with the highest density of caterpillars available for prey.[4][4] This is a resident species - juveniles remain at their natal site; they do not disperse once they fledge.[3]

Taxonomy
Canary Islands races
Ranges of the Canary Islands races of African blue tit
Green: teneriffae
Brown: palmensis
Blue: ombriosus
Purple: hedwigii
Yellow: degener

This species and the Eurasian blue tit were formerly considered conspecific.

Subspecies are:[2]

  • C. t. palmensis – Palma blue tit – La Palma, in NW Canary Is.
  • C. t. ombriosus – El Hierro (SW Canaries)
  • C. t. teneriffae – Canary blue tit – La Gomera and Tenerife, in WC Canary Is.
  • C. t. hedwigii – Gran Canaria, in C Canary Is.
  • C. t. degener – Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, in E Canary Is.
  • C. t. ultramarinus – Ultramarine tit – NW Africa from Morocco E to N Tunisia
  • C. t. cyrenaicae – Libyan blue tit – NE Libya
  • The Canary Islands' subspecies has a black cap, and the African form has a blue back. Research is underway to split these populations into distinct species, with a peculiar "leapfrog" distribution:[5][6][7]

Research published in 2007 found that African blue tits on the eastern Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are indistinguishable from those in North Africa and so the subspecies degener should be regarded as a synonym of ultramarinus.[8]

gollark: Yes.
gollark: Project MIDNIGHT RUNG is proceeding as planned; *none* are safe.
gollark: I submitted apioforms to urban dictionary.
gollark: ```pythoncurrent_song = Nonedef mpd_loop(): print("mpd query loop started") while True: global current_song current_song = mpd_client.currentsong() current_song["status"] = mpd_client.status() time.sleep(0.2)threading.Thread(target=mpd_loop).start()@app.route("/current-song")def get_current_song(): return jsonify(current_song)```you utterly.
gollark: Actually, my time is heavserver standard time, and has been shown to be the one true time.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Cyanistes teneriffae". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T103761672A104117708. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103761672A104117708.en.
  2. Illera, Juan Carlos; Spurgin, Lewis G.; Rodriguez-Exposito, Eduardo; Nogales, Manuel; Rando, Juan Carlos (June 2016). "What are We Learning about Speciation and Extinction from the Canary Islands?". Ardeola. 63 (1): 15–33. doi:10.13157/arla.63.1.2016.rp1. ISSN 0570-7358.
  3. "African blue tit (Cyanistes teneriffae)". www.hbw.com. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  4. Ziane, Nadia; Chabi, Yassine; Lambrechts, Marcel M. (December 2006). "Breeding Performance of Blue TitsCyanistes caeruleus ultramarinusin Relation to Habitat Richness of Oak Forest Patches in North-Eastern Algeria". Acta Ornithologica. 41 (2): 163–169. doi:10.3161/068.041.0201. ISSN 0001-6454.
  5. Kvist, Laura (2006). "Response to "Taxonomic status of 'phylogroups' in the Parus teneriffae complex (Aves)" by George Sangster". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 38 (1): 290. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.10.012.
  6. Kvist, Laura; Broggi, J.; Illera, J.C; Koivula, K. (2005). "Colonisation and diversification of the blue tits (Parus caeruleus teneriffae-group) in the Canary Islands". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 34 (3): 501–511. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.11.017. PMID 15683925.
  7. Sangster, George (2006). "Taxonomic status of 'phylogroups' in the Parus teneriffae complex (Aves): Comments on the paper by Kvist et al. (2005)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 38 (1): 288–289. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.10.009. PMID 16314112.
  8. Dietzen, Christian; Garcia-del-Rey, Eduardo; Delgado Castro, Guillermo; Wink, Michael (January 2007). "Phylogeography of the blue tit (Parus teneriffae-group) on the Canary Islands based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data and morphometrics". Journal of Ornithology. 149 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1007/s10336-007-0192-7.
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