Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) [XC688525]
by Frode Falkenberg from \u00c5smyran, Ume\u00e5, V\u00e4sterbottens l\u00e4n, Sweden (call)
Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) [XC837217]
by Romuald Mikusek from Gmina Trzcianne (near St\u00f3jka), Mo\u0144ki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland (alarm call, song)
Nest
A cup, composed of plant materials, but rarely moss, in a hole of a rotten tree or stump, lined with hair.
Eggs (Guide)
6 - 9; white, variably speckled with red-brown.
Subspecies
Parus montanus (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split by Eck and Martens (2006) into Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) and Sichuan Tit (Parus weigoldicus) based on morphological and vocal evidence, but this treatment is not followed by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group owing to considerable overlap in morphological characters between weigoldicus and parapatric subspecies affinis of Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) and because the song-type of weigoldicus is part of the montanus repertoire. The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group is aware that phylogenetic analyses have been published which have proposed generic rearrangements which may affect this species, but prefers to wait until work by other taxonomists reveals how these changes affect the entire groups involved.
Known to have hybridized with Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris), Siberian Tit (Poecile cinctus), Varied Tit (Sittiparus varius), Coal Tit (Periparus ater) and Great Tit (Parus major). Subspecies songarus, affinis, weigoldicus and stoetzneri sometimes treated as representing a separate species; genetic evidence suggests weigoldicus alone may be a separate species. Geographical variation largely clinal, and subspecies intergrade widely; species sometimes considered possibly monotypic, with high degree of variation within populations. Further research and review required, particularly of relationship between baicalensis and stoetzneri.
Other proposed subspecies include colletti (from western Norway) and lonnbergi (northern Scandinavia and north-western Russia), both synonymized with borealis; transsylvanicus (Carpathians and Transylvanian Alps, in south-eastern Europe) and rhodopeus (south-eastern Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria), both merged with nominate; shulpini (Ussuriland) differs only clinally from baicalensis; and suschkini (eastern Tarbagatai Mts), probably of hybrid origin, but provisionally included within songarus.
The following 15 subspecies are recognised:
kleinschmidti (Hellmayr, 1900) - Britain.
rhenanus (Kleinschmidt, O, 1900) - Western Europe (except Britain) from north-western France east to western Germany and northern Switzerland, south to extreme northern Italy.
montanus (Conrad von Baldenstein, 1827) - South-eastern France (Jura) to Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and northern and central Greece.
salicarius (Brehm, CL, 1831) - Germany and western Poland south to north-eastern Switzerland and Austria.
borealis (de Sélys-Longchamps, 1843) - Fennoscandia, Baltic Republics and European Russia south to western Ukraine.
uralensis (Grote, 1927) - South-eastern European Russia, western Siberia and northern Kazakhstan.
baicalensis Swinhoe, 1871 - Eastern Russia (Yenisey Basin and Altai east to western coast of Sea of Okhotsk), northern Mongolia, north-western and north-eastern China (Xinjiang; Manchuria) and northern Korea.
anadyrensis (Belopolski, 1932) - Extreme north-eastern Siberia south to northern Okhotsk coast.
kamtschatkensis Bonaparte, 1850 - Kamchatka.
sachalinensis (Lönnberg, 1908) - Sakhalin I.
restrictus (Hellmayr, 1900) - Japan.
songarus (Severtsov, 1873) - South-eastern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (central and eastern Tien Shan) east to north-western China (north-western Xinjiang). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Songar Tit (Poecile songara).
affinis Przewalski, 1876 - North-central China (north-eastern Qinghai, Gansu, northern Sichuan, Ningxia and south-western Shaanxi).
weigoldicus (O. Kleinschmidt, 1921) - South-central China (eastern Xizang, south-eastern Qinghai, western Sichuan and north-western Yunnan). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Sichuan Tit (Parus weigoldicus).
stoetzneri (Kleinschmidt, O, 1921) - North-eastern China (south-eastern Nei-Mongol and Shanxi east to Hebei and Henan).
The Reader's Digest Book of British Birds 1980, 3rd Edition, Drive Publications Ltd ISBN 0 340 25308 8
Birds in Colour Campbell, B., 1960, Penguin Books Ltd
The Pocket Guide to Nest and Eggs Fitter, R.S.R., 1954, Collins
RSPB Handbook of British Birds Holden, P., Cleeves, T., 2002, A & C Black ISBN 0 7136 5713 8
Birds of Britain and Europe Sterry, P., et al., 2001, AA Publishing ISBN 0 7495 3068 5
The Popular Handbook of British Birds Hollom, P.A.D., 1973, H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd ISBN 0 85493 002 7
BirdLife International Species Factsheet