Cinereous Tit (Parus cinereus) [XC741499]
by Somkiat Pakapinyo (Chai) from Alampetty, Chinnar WLS Idukki, Kerala, India (call)
Cinereous Tit (Parus cinereus) [XC369405]
by David Tan from Mysore-Ooty Rooad, The Nilgiris County, Tamil Nadu, India (call)
Subspecies
Parus major (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split by Päckert et al. (2005) into Great Tit (Parus major), Eastern Great Tit (Parus minor) and Southern Great Tit (Parus cinereus) who also transferred Turkestan Tit (Parus bokharensis) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) into Great Tit (Parus major). The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group supports the authors treatment of bokharensis because morphological, vocal and genetic differences are small, but the treatment of minor and cinereus as species is not followed owing to the authors own reservations about recognising cinereus as distinct from minor because of the minor morphological, vocal and genetic differences and due to uncertainty over taxonomic relationships in the westernmost Himalayan region which allows the possibility that major and bokharensis are connected to cinereus and cinereus to minor. Owing to this uncertainty it is not felt there is sufficient evidence to treat any of these taxa as distinct from major at the species level.
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
The following 12 subspecies are recognised:
decolorans Koelz, 1939 - North-eastern Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
ziaratensis Whistler, 1929 - Central and southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
caschmirensis Hartert, 1905 - North-western Himalayas eastern from northern Pakistan. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
planorum Hartert, 1905 - Northern India to Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and western Myanmar.
vauriei Ripley, 1950 - North-eastern India (eastern Assam). Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
stupae Koelz, 1939 - Western, central and south-eastern India. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
mahrattarum Hartert, 1905 - South-western India and Sri Lanka. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
templorum Meyer de Schauensee, 1946 - Western Thailand and southern Indochina. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
hainanus Hartert, 1905 - Hainan I. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
ambiguus (Raffles, 1822) - Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
sarawacensis Slater, 1885 - North-western, north-eastern and south-eastern Borneo. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
cinereus Vieillot, 1818 - Southern, south-eastern Asia. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Great Tit (Parus major).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet