Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus) [XC338409]
by Paul van Els from Off Route 3 north of Willow, Matanuska-Susitna, Alaska, United States (call)
Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus) [XC356193]
by Jorge de Leon Cardozo & Susan Hochgraf from Glenn Highway near Eureka Roadhouse (near Palmer), Matanuska-Susitna, Alaska, United States (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. Forms a superspecies, and has been considered conspecific, with Siberian Tit (Poecile cinctus) and Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens). Geographical variation slight, and confused by seasonal and individual variation. Additional named subspecies, based on very slight differences, include cascadensis (Cascade Mts, in extreme southern British Columbia and extreme northern Washington, on south-western Canada-USA border), merged with columbianus, and rabbittsi (described from Newfoundland, in eastern Canada), synonymized with nominate. Full review of fresh-plumaged individuals of all subspecies required.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
stoneyi (Ridgway, 1887) - North-western USA (north-central Alaska) and north-western Canada.
columbianus (Rhoads, 1893) - Southern Alaska and adjacent western Canada, southern in north-western USA to northern Washington.
hudsonicus (Forster, 1772) - Central Alaska east to eastern Canada (east to Labrador and Newfoundland).
farleyi (Godfrey, 1951) - South-central Canada (eastern British Columbia east to central Manitoba).
littoralis (Bryant, H, 1865) - Extreme south-eastern Canada (southern Quebec east to Prince Edward I and Nova Scotia) and extreme north-eastern USA (eastern from New York).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet