Sombre Tit (Poecile lugubris) [XC314929]
by Marco Dragonetti from Comuna Niculi\u021bel, Jude\u021bul Tulcea, Romania (call)
Sombre Tit (Poecile lugubris) [XC134465]
by Sander Pieterse from Gaziantep, \u015eahinbey, Gaziantep, Turkey (alarm call)
Subspecies
Has been considered conspecific with Rusty-breasted Tit (Poecile davidi).
Subspecies hyrcanus has been treated as a separate species on basis of differences in voice and breeding behaviour and apparent absence of intergradation with neighbouring dubius and anatoliae; close to former subspecies in structure and plumage and to latter in plumage, but vocal characters and breeding biology similar to those of Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) (especially of "songarus group"); further study required. Geographical variation largely clinal, size decreasing from north to south, crown and bib darker from south to northern and east, and underparts increasingly paler from west to east. Described subspecies splendens (from eastern Romania and eastern Bulgaria) somewhat larger and paler than nominate, but considered better synonymized with it.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
lugubris (Temminck, 1820) - Extreme north-western Croatia south to Albania, and central and southern Romania south to eastern Bulgaria and northern Greece, also Crete.
lugens (Brehm, CL, 1855) - Central and southern Greece.
anatoliae (Hartert, 1905) - Asia Minor, western Georgia, extreme southern Armenia and Levant (south to northern Israel).
hyrcanus Zarudny and Loudon, 1905 - Northern Iran (Elburz Mountains) and adjacent Azerbaijan. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Caspian Tit (Poecile hyrcanus).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet