Wallcreeper (Tichodromidae)

Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria) - HBW 13, p. 164

French: Tichodrome échelette German: Mauerläufer Spanish: Treparriscos
Other common names: Red-winged Wallcreeper

Taxonomy: Certhia muraria Linnaeus, 1766, southern Europe.
Sometimes treated in a subfamily of the nuthatch family (Sittidae), but differs distinctly in various morphological features and also in several aspects of behaviour. Geographical variation only slight; race nepalensis considered insufficiently differentiated by some authors, who treat species as monotypic. Other proposed races are longirostra (mountains of Iran) and ognewi (Tashkent, in Uzbekistan), synonymized with nominate and nepalensis, respectively. Two subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

muraria (Linnaeus, 1766) - breeds in mountains of S & E Europe (Spain and S France E, including Corsica, to Italy, Balkans, Caucasus, S & E Turkey) E to N & W Iran (Zagros Mts, Elburz Mts).
nepalensis Bonaparte, 1850 - mountains from Turkmenistan and E Iran (Kerman and Khorasan) E to Kazakhstan (Tien Shan), W Mongolia (Mongolian Altai, Gobian Altai) and, in S, to Himalayas and N, C & E China (N & E Tibetan Plateau E, discontinuously, to Hebei and W Liaoning, and to Yunnan).