White-naped Tit

The white-naped tit, sometimes called the white-winged tit, is the only pied, black-and-white tit in India, and is endemic to the country in dry thorn scrub forest in two disjunct populations, western and southern. The wing coverts, crown, sides of the head, chin, throat and a ventral band down the breast and belly to the vent are black, while the cheeks below the eye, the ear coverts and a nape patch are white, and it is hard to mistake with its contrasting pattern, without the grey wing coverts and back of the partly sympatric cinereous tit (Wikipedia, general species account).

It was discovered in the Eastern Ghats near Nellore by T. C. Jerdon, who received a specimen from a local hunter. Shy and best detected by its musical whistling calls, tee-whi-whi or see pit-pit-pit-pit, it forages within well-established territories that pairs defend against their own species. The breeding season in Rajasthan is during the monsoons, May to August; the clutch size is not known, though adults with three young have been seen. Birds ringed in western India were recaptured within 5 to 7 km. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to mainland India and rates it a Moderate conservation priority, with a Moderate range of about 58,400 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).