Other Names (World)
Eastern Rock Nuthatch, Eastern Rock-Nuthatch, Great Nuthatch, Great Rock Nuthatch, Greater Nuthatch, Greater Rock Nuthatch, Persian Nuthatch
Eastern Rock Nuthatch (Sitta tephronota) [XC514812]
by Ding Li Yong from Dasht, North Khorasan Province, Iran (call)
Eastern Rock Nuthatch (Sitta tephronota) [XC28809]
by Albert Lastukhin from Isikli, SE Turkey N 36 13' 56'' E 33 41' 17'', Turkey (call)
Subspecies
Closely related to Western Rock Nuthatch (Sitta neumayer), the two together often considered an offshoot of "Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) group", 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 continental conditions (with colder winters and hotter summers) that favoured a larger body and bill and Western Rock Nuthatch (Sitta neumayer) to a less extreme Mediterranean climate. When coming into contact again, in southern Iran, a process of what is termed "character displacement" selected for a bolder eyestripe and larger body size in present species. Overlap zone in northern Iran may be more recent, and the two species may not have diverged sufficiently to permit altitudinal coexistence. Subspecies obscura sometimes treated as a separate species, but intergrades with dresseri in Iranian Azerbaijan and with nominate in north-eastern and south-eastern Iran, probably also with iranica in eastern Elburz Mts (northern Iran). Birds of this species in upper Aras valley (north-eastern Turkey) and in mountains of west-central and south-eastern Iran (Qom, Anarak massif and Yazd east to Jebal Barez; also southern Sistan and Baluchistan) of uncertain racial identity, provisionally placed with obscura; likewise, birds in Khorasan area of north-eastern Iran provisionally included in iranica.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
dresseri Zarudny & Buturlin, 1906 - South-eastern Turkey (E
from Gaziantep) eastern locally to Iranian Azerbaijan, south to northern Iraq
(Kurdistan) and western Iran (southern in Zagros Mts to Fars and east to Hamadan and
Esfahan).
obscura Zarudny & Loudon, 1905 - North-eastern Turkey (upper
Aras valley), southern Armenia, southern Azerbaijan and north, west-central and southern Iran (eastern in
Elburz Mts to northern Khorasan. Also mountains in Qom, Anarak massif and
Yazd east to Jebal Barez. Also Baluchistan and Sistan).
iranica (Buturlin, 1916) - Southern Turkmenistan and north-eastern Iran,
also central Uzbekistan (isolated mountains in central Kyzylkum desert).
tephronota Sharpe, 1872 - Extreme eastern Turkmenistan
(Kugitangtau Mts, Karabil’ plateau), southern Uzbekistan and SE
Kazakhstan southern in mountains to north-eastern Iran (northern Khorasan), Afghanistan and W
Pakistan (southern Waziristan south to northern Baluchistan).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet