Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) [XC606052]
by Bobby Wilcox from Hendrix Habitat - Fairview, Williamson County, Tennessee, United States (uncertain)
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) [XC481987]
by from Skidaway Island, Chatham County, GA USA, United States (alarm call)
Subspecies
Until recently present genus normally subsumed into a broad Parus, and many authors still prefer that treatment. Genus normally treated as feminine, but no evidence in original description or elsewhere justifies this, so genus is masculine by default. May form a superspecies with Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) and Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), possibly also including Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) and/or Mexican Chickadee (Poecile sclateri). Hybridizes with Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) in narrow band in east-central United States (extending from southern Kansas east to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and western North Carolina). Geographical variation clinal, with decrease in size and reduction in extent of pale edges of flight-feathers from north to south, also paler from east to west. Subspecies thus intergrade widely in overlap areas. Evidence from mitochondrial DNA indicates that eastern and western populations (which meet approximately along Mississippi-Alabama state lines) have been separated from each other by c. 1 million years. The level of divergence does not influence plumage or vocal characteristics, but western populations may meet species status.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
atricapilloides (Lunk, 1952) - South-central USA (southern Kansas, Oklahoma and northern and central Texas).
agilis (Sennett, 1888) - South-eastern Oklahoma, south-central and eastern Texas, south-western Arkansas and western Louisiana.
extimus (Todd & Sutton, 1936) - Southern Missouri east to Ohio, southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, south to north-western Tennessee, north-western North Carolina and eastern Virginia.
carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) - Northern and eastern Arkansas, southern Kentucky and Tennessee east to south-eastern Virginia, south to eastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and northern and central Florida.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet