Other Names (World)
Western Rock Nuthatch, Western Rock-Nuthatch, Rock Nuthatch, Lesser Rock Nuthatch, Neumayer's Nuthatch, Syrian Rock Nuthatch (syriaca)
Western Rock Nuthatch (Sitta neumayer) [XC823107]
by Graham Clarke from Vardzia, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia (song)
Western Rock Nuthatch (Sitta neumayer) [XC760081]
by Danuta Peplowska-Marczak from Lakonia (near Monemvasia), Peloponnese Region, Decentralized Administration of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian, Greece (song)
Subspecies
Closely related to Eastern Rock Nuthatch (Sitta tephronota), the two together often considered an offshoot of "Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) group", the harsh aggressive call and nest details suggesting particularly close relationship with Kashmir Nuthatch (Sitta cashmirensis). They probably became fully ecologically isolated from each other when geographically separated, present species adapting to a Mediterranean climate and Eastern Rock Nuthatch (Sitta tephronota) to more continental conditions (with colder winters and hotter summers) that favoured a larger body and bill. When coming into contact again, in southern Iran, a process of what is termed "character displacement" selected for a bolder eyestripe and even larger body size in Eastern Rock Nuthatch (Sitta tephronota). Overlap zone in northern Iran may be more recent, and the two species may not have diverged sufficiently to permit altitudinal coexistence. Subspecies syriaca intergrades with zarudnyi in central-southern Turkey (Taurus Mts) and with rupicola in eastern Turkey and Georgia; rupicola probably intergrades with tschitscherini in north-western Iran (approximately from Mahabad south to Kermanshah). Birds of this species on Lesbos (eastern Greece) of uncertain racial identity, provisionally included in zarudnyi. Others of this species in northern and north-eastern Turkey (eastern from Istanbul and north of Aras valley) and north-central and north-eastern Iran (east of Elburz Mts, and south of that range to Qom and Kavir) similarly of uncertain racial affiliation, provisionally included in rupicola.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
neumayer Michahelles, 1830 - South-eastern Europe in western Croatia (south-eastern from Crikvenica), southern Bosnia, Montenegro, southern Serbia, Albania, southern Macedonia, southern Bulgaria and Greece (including islands of Corfu, Lefkada and Zakynthos).
zarudnyi Buturlin, 1907 - Lesbos (eastern Greece) and western Turkey (western Anatolia and north-western fringe of central plateau east to Elmali and Ankara and, in south, to Taurus Mts).
syriaca Temminck, 1835 - South-eastern Turkey eastern from Taurus Mts (absent southern lowlands between R Firat and R Tigris), north-western Syria (southern to Damascus region), mountains of Lebanon and extreme northern Israel (Mt Hermon).
rupicola Blanford, 1873 - Northern and north-eastern Turkey (eastern from Istanbul, north of Aras valley), southern Georgia (southern from southern foothills of Great Caucasus), Armenia and south-western and north-eastern Azerbaijan (including Samaxi, in eastern foothills of Caucasus) south to northern Iraq and north-western and northern Iran (eastern through Elburz Mts to Bojnurd, south to Kermanshah region, Qom and Kavir).
tschitscherini Zarudny, 1904 - Western and west-central Iran in Zagros Mts (from Kermanshah south-east to Fars) and mountains south of Qom (south-east to Anarak massif).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet