Anthoscopus musculus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The mouse-coloured penduline tit or mouse-colored penduline tit (Anthoscopus musculus) is a species of bird in the family Remizidae. At 8 cm (3.1 in) in length, it is one of the two shortest birds native to Africa, alongside the tit hylia.
The mouse-coloured penduline tit was formally described in 1882 by the German ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub under the binomial name Aegithalus musculus. The species 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 musculus is Latin meaning "little mouse". The species is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
This species has an extensive range in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 550,000 km2. Its natural habitats are dry savannah and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.
Compilers: Stuart Butchart, Jonathan Ekstrom (2008). "Mouse-coloured Penduline-tit - BirdLife Species Factsheet"... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 2 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 3 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mouse-colored Penduline-Tit sighting in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, based on 80 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 166th most-seen of the 341 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mouse-colored Penduline-Tit in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and December–February, the lowest months. Those are among Samburu National Reserve's wettest months, with about 90 mm of rain a month against 5 mm in September.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mouse-colored Penduline-Tit sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Mouse-colored Penduline-Tit sightings, Samburu National Reserve ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 40%) and Mkomazi National Park (Tanzania, about 10%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Mouse-colored Penduline-Tit that you can see in Samburu National Reserve (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Superb Starling (about 80%), White-browed Sparrow-Weaver (about 70%) and White-headed Buffalo-Weaver (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mouse-colored Penduline-Tit is recorded against all the birds logged in Samburu National Reserve (80 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.
