Parus rufiventris
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The rufous-bellied tit (Melaniparus rufiventris) is a species of bird in the tit family. It is found in Africa from the Republic of the Congo, DR Congo and northern Namibia east to Tanzania and northern Mozambique. The rufous-bellied tit was formally described in 1877 by the Portuguese zoologist José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage based on a specimen collected near the town of Caconda in central Angola. He placed it with the tits in the genus Parus and coined the binomial name Parus rufiventris. The specific epithet is Modern Latin meaning "red-bellied", from Latin rufus meaning "ruddy" or "rufous" and venter, ventris meaning "belly". The rufous-bellied tit is now one of 14 tits placed in the genus Melaniparus that was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.
Five subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-bellied Tit sighting in Mikumi National Park on a given day, based on 62 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 46th most-seen of the 261 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-bellied Tit in Mikumi National Park on a given day, against about 10% in January and March–May, the lowest months. That is one of Mikumi National Park's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain against 200 mm in April.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous-bellied Tit sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Rufous-bellied Tit sightings, Mikumi National Park has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Kafue National Park (Zambia, under 5%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Rufous-bellied Tit that you can see in Mikumi National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Fork-tailed Drongo (about 50%), Lesser Striped-Swallow (about 40%) and Yellow-throated Sparrow (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous-bellied Tit is recorded against all the birds logged in Mikumi National Park (62 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
