Azure Tit (Cyanistes cyanus) [XC857028]
by Cedric Mroczko from Svalovychi, Lyubeshivs'kyi district, Volyn Oblast, Ukraine (call)
Azure Tit (Cyanistes cyanus) [XC371933]
by Oscar Campbell from Sharyn Hunting Lodges, Shonzhy (Chundzha), Kazakhstan (song)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and African Blue Tit (Cyanistes teneriffae). Hybridizes with Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), mainly following years when it expands western in periodic irruptions (hybrids described as a separate taxon, pleskii).
South-central Asian subspecies carruthersi, flavipectus and berezowskii frequently considered to represent a separate species, but flavipectus hybridizes with subspecies tianschanicus where ranges meet in southern Kyrgyzstan; hybridization, however, appears to be limited. In addition, geographical variation slight and mostly clinal; in particular, subspecies yenisseensis intergrades both with tianschanicus and with hyperrhiphaeus.
The following 8 subspecies are recognised:
cyanus (Pallas, 1770) - Belarus and western and central European Russia east to central Urals.
yenisseensis Buturlin, 1911 - South-central Siberia, Altai Mts and northern Mongolia east to north-eastern China (Nei Mongol, Manchuria) and Russian Far East.
tianschanicus Menzbier, 1884 - Mountains of south-eastern Kazakhstan and adjacent Kyrgyzstan (central and eastern Tien Shan) east to north-western China (northern and western Xinjiang).
koktalensis Portenko, 1954 - Lowlands of south-eastern Kazakhstan.
carruthersi (Hartert, 1917) - Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan (Alai Mts and western Pamirs).
flavipectus (Severtsov, 1873) - Southern Kyrgyzstan (eastern Alai Range and western Tien Shan) south to northern Afghanistan. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Yellow-breasted Tit (Parus flavipectus).
berezowskii Pleske, 1893 - North-eastern Qinghai, in north-central China.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet