The chestnut-bellied tit was first described by the English ornithologist John Gould in 1863 and given the binomial nameParus castaneoventris.[2] It was formerly considered as a subspecies of the varied tit but was promoted to species status after the publication of a phylogenetic study in 2014.[3][4]
The species differs from the varied tit in having underparts of a deep chestnut colour.[5]
^McKay, B.D.; Mays Jnr, H.L.; Tao, C.-T.; Wan, D.; Higuchi, H.; Nishium, I. (2014). "Incorporating color into integrative taxonomy: analysis of the Varied Tit (Sittiparus varius) complex in East Asia". Systems Biology. 63 (4): 505–517. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syu016. PMID24603127.
^Gosler, A.; Clement, P. (2017). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Varied Tit (Sittiparus varius)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 2 September 2017.(subscription required)