Other Names (World)
Eurasian Penduline-Tit, Penduline Tit, Common Penduline-tit, European Penduline-tit, Masked Penduline-tit, Western Penduline-tit, Eurasian Penduline Tit
Eurasian Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus) [XC416500]
by Hannu Varkki from Stolinski rajon, Brest Region, Sweden (song)
Eurasian Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus) [XC801746]
by Jelle Scharringa from Westenschouwen, Schouwen-Duiveland, Zeeland, Germany (call)
Subspecies
Remiz pendulinus (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into Eurasian Penduline-Tit (Remiz pendulinus) and Black-headed Penduline-Tit (Remiz macronyx) following Harrap and Quinn (1996) who recognises four species of Remiz: pendulinus, macronyx, coronatus and consobrinus. Eck and Martens (2006) lump macronyx with pendulinus and consobrinus with coronatus citing hybridisation between macronyx and pendulinus on the north and southwest shores of the Caspian Sea as a factor, but they fail to adequately justify their treatment of White-crowned Penduline-Tit (Remiz coronatus) and Chinese Penduline-Tit (Remiz consobrinus) as conspecific. Examination of specimens and literature by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group suggests that the four taxa are best treated as separate species owing to consistent morphological and ecological differences between them with habitat partitioning occurring where two taxa occur in sympatry. This arrangement best fits the geographic distribution of these taxa.
Forms a species group with Chinese Penduline-Tit (Remiz consobrinus), Black-headed Penduline-Tit (Remiz macronyx) and White-crowned Penduline-Tit (Remiz coronatus). All are often considered conspecific. Sometimes considered conspecific with Black-headed Penduline-Tit (Remiz macronyx), and the other two united as a separate species. Treatment as four distinct species based mainly on structural, as well as plumage and habitat, differences.
Present species frequently hybridizes with Black-headed Penduline-Tit (Remiz macronyx) by northern and south-western shores of Caspian Sea. Hybrids in northern (mouth of R Ural) named as bostanjogli, and those in southern as, respectively, loudoni and altaicus; last-mentioned sometimes treated as a valid subspecies.
Birds in Syria (and possibly extreme northern Israel) of uncertain racial identity, provisionally placed in menzbieri. Additional proposed subspecies are persimilis (described from Eregli, in southern Turkey), which is synonymized with menzbieri, castaneus (from Astrakhan), included in caspius, and barabensis (from Baraba and Kulunda steppes, in Tomsk area of western Siberia), treated as a synonym of jaxarticus.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
pendulinus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Breeds Denmark and southern Sweden eastern in western Russia to R Ural, south to Iberia, France, lowland Italy and Sicily, Greece and Crete, western Turkey and foothills of north-western Caucasus.
menzbieri (Zarudny, 1913) - Turkey (except west), Armenia, Azerbaijan, north-western Iran and Syria, possibly also extreme northern Israel.
jaxarticus (Severtsov, 1873) - East of Urals in western Siberia and northern Kazakhstan east to north-western foothills of Altai.
caspius (Peltzam, 1870) - Plains of south-western Russia and north-western Kazakhstan (R Volga-R Ural, western coastal lowlands of Caspian Sea and foothills of north-eastern Caucasus.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet