Western Rock Nuthatch (Sitta neumayer) - HBW 13, p. 141

Taxonomy: Sitta neumayer Michahelles, 1830, Ragusa (= Dubrovnik), Dalmatia, Croatia.
Closely related to S. tephronota, the two together often considered an offshoot of “S. europaea group”, the harsh aggressive call and nest details suggesting particularly close relationship with S. cashmirensis. They probably became fully ecologically isolated from each other when geographically separated, present species adapting to a Mediterranean climate and S. tephronota to more continental conditions (with colder winters and hotter summers) that favoured a larger body and bill. When coming into contact again, in S Iran, a process of what is termed “character displacement” selected for a bolder eyestripe and even larger body size in S. tephronota; overlap zone in N Iran may be more recent, and the two species may not have diverged sufficiently to permit altitudinal coexistence. Race syriaca intergrades with zarudnyi in CS Turkey (Taurus Mts) and with rupicola in E Turkey and Georgia; rupicola probably intergrades with tschitscherini in NW Iran (approximately from Mahabad S to Kermanshah). Birds of this species on Lesbos (E Greece) of uncertain racial identity, provisionally included in zarudnyi; others of this species in N & NE Turkey (E from Istanbul and N of Aras valley) and NC & NE Iran (E of Elburz Mts, and S of that range to Qom and Kavir) similarly of uncertain racial affiliation, provisionally included in rupicola. Six subspecies recognized.