About Parus niger Vieillot, 1818
The southern black tit (Parus niger Vieillot, 1818) differs from Northern Hemisphere parids and other local tit species in being almost entirely monochrome in colour, and shows slight sexual dimorphism: females are greyish, while males are a distinct blue-black. It can be told apart from the white-winged tit and Carp's tit by the lack of a white rim on its tail. It measures around 16 centimetres (6 inches) in total length when including the tail. This species occurs mainly in tropical and subtropical savanna woodland, distributed in a semicircular arc from Angola to the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It favours woodland dominated by broad-leaved trees, most notably miombo, Combretum species, and Burkea africana. It is particularly common in the woodlands of western Zimbabwe, where population densities can reach as high as fifty birds per square kilometre. Like all tits, it feeds primarily on insects, and is a voracious consumer of wasps in its preferred habitat. Unusually for a parid, it has also been recorded feeding on nectar and fruiting figs.
