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Tits and Chickadees (Paridae) - HBW 12

Azure Tit (Cyanistes cyanus)

French: Mésange azurée German: Lasurmeise Spanish: Herrerillo Azul
Other common names: Yellow-breasted (Azure) Tit, Turkestan Tit (carruthersi, flavipectus and berezowskii); Pleske’s Tit (hybrid form “pleskii”)

Taxonomy: Parus cyanus Pallas, 1770, River Volga, Russia.
Until recently present genus normally subsumed into a broad Parus, and many authors still prefer that treatment. Forms a superspecies with C. caeruleus and C. teneriffae. Hybridizes with former, mainly following years when it expands W in periodic irruptions (hybrids described as a separate taxon, pleskii). SC Asian races carruthersi, flavipectus and berezowskii frequently considered to represent a separate species, but flavipectus hybridizes with race tianschanicus where ranges meet in S Kyrgyzstan; hybridization, however, appear.. View all taxonomy...

Taxonomy: Parus cyanus Pallas,1770. River Volga, Russia.
Until recently present genus normally subsumed into a broad Parus, and many authors still prefer that treatment. Forms a superspecies with C. caeruleus and C. teneriffae. Hybridizes with former, mainly following years when it expands W in periodic irruptions (hybrids described as a separate taxon, pleskii). SC Asian races carruthersi, flavipectus and berezowskii frequently considered to represent a separate species, but flavipectus hybridizes with race tianschanicus where ranges meet in S Kyrgyzstan; hybridization, however, appears to be limited; further study required. In addition, geographical variation slight and mostly clinal; in particular, race yenisseensis intergrades both with tianschanicus and with hyperrhiphaeus. Eight subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

  • cyanus (Pallas, 1770) - Belarus and W & C European Russia E to C Urals.
  • hyperrhiphaeus Dementiev & Heptner, 1932 - SW Urals, SW Siberia and N Kazakhstan.
  • yenisseensis (Buturlin, 1911) - SC Siberia, Altai Mts and N Mongolia E to NE China (Nei Mongol, Manchuria) and Russian Far East.

     See all 8 subspecies
  • cyanus (Pallas, 1770) - Belarus and W & C European Russia E to C Urals.
  • hyperrhiphaeus Dementiev & Heptner, 1932 - SW Urals, SW Siberia and N Kazakhstan.
  • yenisseensis (Buturlin, 1911) - SC Siberia, Altai Mts and N Mongolia E to NE China (Nei Mongol, Manchuria) and Russian Far East.
  • tianschanicus Menzbier, 1884 - mountains of SE Kazakhstan and adjacent Kyrgyzstan (C & E Tien Shan) E to NW China (N & W Xinjiang).
  • koktalensis Portenko, 1954 - lowlands of SE Kazakhstan.
  • carruthersi (E. J. O. Hartert, 1917) - Kyrgyzstan and N Tajikistan (Alai Mts and W Pamirs).
  • flavipectus (Severtsov, 1873) - S Kyrgyzstan (E Alai Range and W Tien Shan) S to N Afghanistan.
  • berezowskii Pleske, 1893 - NE Qinghai, in NC China.
  • Least Concern

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