Indian Black-lored Tit

The Indian black-lored tit, also called the Indian tit or Indian yellow tit, is a resident breeder on the Indian subcontinent and an easy tit to recognise in most of India. It is large for a tit at 13 cm, with a broad black line, broader in the male, down an otherwise yellow front. The crest, neck, throat and head are black with yellow cheeks and eyebrows, the upperparts olive-green, with two white or yellowish wingbars and white outer tail feathers. The underparts become increasingly dull from north to south, and females and young are duller than males (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is an active, agile feeder, taking insects and spiders from the canopy and sometimes fruit. It is a vocal bird with a large variety of calls, the most familiar a si-si, and the song is a sometimes nuthatch-like chi-chi-chi. The clutch is typically three to five white eggs, spotted red. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to mainland India and rates it a Low conservation priority, with a Large range of about 306,000 km² and a decline of about 52% over the long term (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).