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Male Black-breasted Tit has glossy-black upper-head, throat, craw, breast and fore-belly. Extended crown-feathers formed well expressed crest. Cheeks and neck-flanks are clear white. Mantle is grey slightly rusty tinged. On rear-neck between black crown and fore-mantle there is large white patch with washed rusty border. Rear-belly is ashy-grey. Flight and tail feathers are brownish-grey. Axillaries and undertail coverts are rusty. Bill is black, legs are leaden-grey or blackish. Females are dimmer than males; its black color is without gloss; black on underparts is less than in male ones; all belly is dark-grey. Juveniles head, throat and craw are blackish-brown. Rusty on rear-neck is lack. Axillaries is slightly buff tinged, undertail coverts are same color on belly; cheeks are not bright-white but yellowish-green tinged. Sizes: wing 65-75, tail 51-58, tarsus 18.2-21.0, bill 7-12 mm.

Biology

Black-breasted Tit is rare resident. It inhabits juniper forests at attitudes 1800-2600 m, but in Kysylkurt ridge in middle May the singing male was recorded in honeysuckle thicket with crags, at distance 25 km from nearest juniper forest. On autumn dispersals Black-breasted Tit visits deciduous forests and sometimes man-made forests in foothills. Nest is built in hole under tree roots, stones or in rock cracks, and very rare nest boxes are used too; nest is from moss and hair. Clutches of 4-6 eggs is founded in end of April to early May. Only female incubates, male sometimes feed it. Both parents feed juveniles, which fledge in period from end of May to end of July. Probably two broods per season. In foothills Black-breasted Tit observed singly and in pairs from October to February.

References

"Птицы Казахстана" том 4. "Наука". Алма-Ата, 1972. Э.И.Гаврилов. "Фауна и распространение птиц Казахстана". Алматы, 1999. Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005.