Black-browed bushtit
The black-browed bushtit or black-browed tit is a species of bird in the family Aegithalidae. It is found in mid-southern China and sporadically in Myanmar. Its natural habitats are boreal forests and temperate forests. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the rufous-fronted tit of the central and eastern Himalayas but is now often regarded as a separate species. Sometimes the subspecies A. b. sharpei of western Burma is also treated as a species.
Taxonomy
The black-browed bushtit was formally described and illustrated in 1892 by the French zoologist Émile Oustalet based on a specimen collected by the French explorer, Gabriel Bonvalot, and his companions near Kangding in the province of Sichuan of southwest China. Oustalet coined the binomial name Acredula bonvaloti. The black-browed bushtit is now one of nine species placed in the genus Aegithalos that was introduced in 1804 by the French naturalist Johann Hermann. The genus name was a term used by Aristotle for three European tits: the long-tailed tit, the great tit, and the Eurasian blue tit. The specific epithet bonvaloti was chosen to honour the collector. This species was formerly considered as conspecific with the rufous-fronted bushtit.Three subspecies are recognised:A. b. bonvaloti – southwest, central south China, northeast MyanmarA. b. obscuratus – central ChinaA. b. sharpei – southwest Myanmar
The subspecies A. b. sharpei has sometimes been treated as a separate species, the Burmese bushtit.