Grey penduline tit

Taxonomy

The grey penduline tit was formally described in 1871 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe from a specimen that had been collected in the Ovaquenyama or Oukwanyama district of Damaraland. This is now northern Namibia. Sharpe coined the binomial name Aegithalus caroli. This tit is now placed in the genus Anthoscopus that was introduced in 1851 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek anthos meaning "blossom" or "flower" with skopos meaning "searcher". The specific epithet caroli is from Late Latin Carolus for "Charles". This was chosen to honour the Swedish explorer Karl Johan Andersson.

Eleven subspecies are recognised:

• A. c. roccatii Salvadori, 1906 Uganda, northeast DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, west Kenya and northwest Tanzania
• A. c. pallescens Ulfstrand, 1960 – west Tanzania
• A. c. ansorgei Hartert, E, 1905 – Congo, west DR Congo to central Angola
• A. c. rhodesiae Sclater, WL, 1932 – southeast DR Congo, north Zambia and southwest Tanzania
• A. c. robertsi Haagner, 1909 – southeast Kenya to ne Zambia, Malawi and north Mozambique
• A. c. caroli (Sharpe, 1871) – south Angola and southwest Zambia to north Namibia and north Botswana
• A. c. winterbottomi White, CMN, 1946 – south DR Congo and northwest Zambia
• A. c. rankinei Irwin, 1963 – northeast Zimbabwe
• A. c. hellmayri Roberts, 1914 – east, south Zimbabwe, south Mozambique and northeast South Africa
• A. c. sylviella Reichenow, 1904 – south-central Kenya to central Tanzania
• A. c. sharpei Hartert, E, 1905 – southwest Kenya to north Tanzania

The race A. c. sylviella, found in parts of Kenya and Tanzania, is sometimes regarded as a separate species, the buff-bellied penduline-tit.