Penduline-tits (Remizidae)

Eurasian Penduline-tit (Remiz pendulinus) - HBW 13, p. 69

French: Rémiz penduline German: Beutelmeise Spanish: Pájaro-moscón Europeo
Other common names: Penduline Tit, Common/European/Masked/Western Penduline-tit

Taxonomy: Motacilla pendulinus Linnaeus, 1758, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Italy.
Forms a species group with R. macronyx, R. coronatus and R. consobrinus, and all four often combined as one species; sometimes present species considered conspecific with R. macronyx, and the other two united as a separate species. Treatment as four distinct species based mainly on structural, as well as plumage and habitat, differences. Present species frequently hybridizes with R. macronyx by N & SW shores of Caspian Sea; hybrids in N (mouth of R Ural) named as bostanjogli, and those in S as, respectively, loudoni and altaicus; last-mentioned sometimes treated as a valid race. Birds of this species in Syria (and possibly extreme N Israel) of uncertain racial identity, provisionally placed in menzbieri. Additional proposed races are persimilis (described from Eregli, in S Turkey), which is synonymized with menzbieri, castaneus (from Astrakhan), included in caspius, and barabensis (from Baraba and Kulunda steppes, in Tomsk area of W Siberia), treated as a synonym of jaxarticus. Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

pendulinus (Linnaeus, 1758) - breeds Denmark and S Sweden E in W Russia to R Ural, S to Iberia, France, lowland Italy and Sicily, Greece and Crete, W Turkey and foothills of NW Caucasus.
menzbieri (Zarudny, 1913) - Turkey (except W), Armenia, Azerbaijan, NW Iran and Syria, possibly also extreme N Israel.
jaxarticus (Severtsov, 1873) - E of Urals in W Siberia and N Kazakhstan E to NW foothills of Altai.
caspius (Peltsam, 1870) - plains of SW Russia and NW Kazakhstan (R Volga-R Ural, W coastal lowlands of Caspian Sea and foothills of NE Caucasus.