The southern black tit, unlike other birds in the paridae family, is almost entirely monotone in color and sexually somewhat dimorphic, with the female being grayish and the male very distinctly blue-black in color. It can be distinguished from the white-winged tit and Carp's tit by having no white rim in its tail and is around 16 centimeters (6 in) in total length including the tail.
Like all tits, it feeds chiefly on insects, and is a voracious consumer of wasps in its favored habitat; however, it has unusually for a paridae, been known to take nectar and fruiting figs