Green-backed Tit

Parus monticolus insperatus

Endemic subspecies

The Green-backed Tit (13 cm) is a very  small, active bird with a black head, neck and bib extending as a line down the centre of its breast and belly, and a conspicuous white cheek.  Its sides are bright lemon yellow washed with gray, its back is light yellowish green and its tail is bluish gray. Its wings bear two white wing bars and the Taiwan race insperatus has bluish fringes on the tertials and broader white tips on the secondaries, tertials and wing coverts than mainland forms.  The eyes and bill are blackish and the legs are gray. 

Green-backed Tits feed on a variety of insects and seeds.  They are agile and acrobatic as they feed, and often travel in mixed species flocks with other tits and small babblers.  Their call is a persistent, ringing “chew chew chew”.  Green-backed Tits nest in tree holes and in Taiwan they are a common bird of mid-elevation broadleaf forests, descending to lower elevations in winter.

References:  A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Mackinnon and Phillipps); 100 Common Birds of Taiwan (Wild Bird Society of Taipei); N. J. Collar, “Endemic subspecies of Taiwan birds—first impressions”, in Birding ASIA, Number 2, December 2004