Varied Tit

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Varied Tit

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Paridae
Genus: Cyanistes
Species: C. varius
Binomial name
Cyanistes varius
(Temminck & Schlegel, 1848)
Subspecies

8 living, 1 recently extinct; see text
Synonyms
  • Parus varius
  • Poecile varius
  • Sittiparus varius

The Varied Tit (Cyanistes varius; see also below) is a perching bird from the tit family, Paridae. It occurs in eastern Asia in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and locally in northeastern China (southern Liaoning) and extreme southeastern Russia (southern Kurile Islands).

Contents

[edit] Description

It is 12–14 cm long and weighs 16–18 g. The wing length is 6.0–7.8 cm. In the nominate race P. v. varius the crown, the bill, the throat, the upper breast and the nape are black. Forehead, face, and cheeks are white. Back, wings, and tail are bluish grey. Mantle, lower breast, belly and undertail coverts are chestnut coloured. From the crown to the nape runs a thin white central line. Other subspecies have a darker hue at the back and at the cheeks, P. v. owstoni has chestnut coloured cheeks and the mantle of P. v. olivaceus has an olive tone. The feet are dark grey.

Its habitat consists of open mixed forests, in particular with the Japanese Castanopsis species Castanopsis cuspidata and Japanese Larch, coniferous forests with Japanese yews, Sugi, and pines as well as bamboo forests at mountain slopes and in river valleys.

The Varied Tit eats a mixed diet consisting of seeds and insects, namely caterpillars.

Its call consists of tiny tones which sounds like tzu….tzu….tzu…

[edit] Systematics

Together with the White-fronted Tit, this species was sometimes separated in the genus. Sittiparus. Alternatively, it was placed in the Blue Tit group Cyanistes. In recent times, these have been considered subgenera of Parus, with the Varied Tit being placed in Sittiparus rather than Cyanistes.

However, mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data indicates that Cyanistes is very distinct from other titmice and certainly a separate genus, while Sittiparus is not a distinct genus but might be considered a subgenus of Poecile, the chickadee group, if these are separated as a distinct genus (which is supported by the data and accepted by some authorities already, such as the American Ornithologists' Union).

In Poecile, this species forms part of a group of apparently rather basal species, the relationships of which are ill-defined. They also include the Sombre Tit, probably the White-fronted Tit, and possibly the White-browed and Caspian Tits (Gill et al., 2005). The genus name Poecile has often been treated as feminine (giving the species name ending varia); however, this was not specified by the original genus author Johann Jakob Kaup, and under the ICZN the genus name must therefore be treated by default as masculine, giving the name ending varius (del Hoyo et al. 2007).

A considerable number of subspecies have been described, with notable diversification on the islands south of Japan; nine are usually considered valid today, of which one has become extinct in the 20th century:

[edit] References

  • BirdLife International (2004). Parus varius. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 November 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
  • del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A., & Christie D. (eds). (2007). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 9788496553422
  • Gill, F. B., Slikas, B., & Sheldon, F. H. (2005). Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae): II. Species relationships based on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene. Auk 122: 121-143. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[0121:POTPIS]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract

[edit] External links