Long-tailed Tit Taxonomy

[stjärtmes]

Hello
I hope someone can help me figure out the distribution of the 13 races (I know what they are) of Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) in the European area!
I am currently doing a piece of university work that involves creating a research proposal (totally fictional) that includes a molecular genetic technique and I have chosen to write a proposal unravelling the phylogeography of the long-tailed tit cause its my fave bird!

Anyway I did find what I thought was a race distribution map online but the link didn't work....so can anyone help distribute the races quite specifically - provide a link or map or anything that helps me partition a map of europe myself.

Many Thanks

John

[cuckooroller]

John,
I have only 10 european races, 19 total races.

[stjärtmes]

well in Europe strictly the 10 i come up with are
caudatus
europaeus
taiti
aremoricus
rosaceus
macedonicus
alpinus
irbii
italiae
siculus


I was hoping someone could help with the areas for alpinus!

[Blackstart]

Hi John,

Kren's Birds of the Czech Republic lists caudatus and europaeus (and everything in between) as occuring in the country.

Adam

[cuckooroller]

John,
You forgot tephronotus for Europe. For alpinus I have only a rather schematic SE Azerbaijan, N Iran. The Clements offers that it also occurs in SW Turkmenistan.

[stjärtmes]

Well I have included
caudatus Scandinavia, Poland & Russia
europaeus Continental Europe
taiti Pyrenees, Cantabria & Northern Portugal
aremoricus NW France
rosaceus Great Britain & Ireland
macedonicus Balkans – Albania, Greece, S Bulgaria
irbii Central & Southern Spain, Corsica
italiae Italy
siculus Sicily
tephronotus Turkey
These are just added into the map!
major Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia)
passeki SE Turkey? (usually Iran)
tauricus Southern Crimea
alpinus SE Azerbaijan, N Iran

Anyone know who first described A. caudatus major and when?????
sibiricus Siberian areas

[Jos Stratford]

Here in Lithuania, the predominent is caudatus - the race is a widespread breeder in (fairly) low density, an abundant passage migrant, especially so in autumn and a winterer in moderate numbers. Race europaeus is rare, though there were a number of records this last autumn (a record year for migration of LTT, many thousands per day moving through at peak period).

Interesting, I have a flock of six LTT at my feeders currently - five are clear caudatus, but the sixth shows characteristics of europaeus and, I believe, to be an intergrade/hybrid

[cuckooroller]

John,

From Howard & Moore (2003):

A.c.caudatus (Linnaeus, 1758) - N and E Europe, N Asia east to Kamchatka and south to N Mongolia, NE China, N Korea, Hokkaido

A.c.rosaceus (Mathews, 1937) - British Isles

A.c.europaeus (Hermann, 1804) - Denmark and E France to NE Croatia and W and S Romania

A.c.aremoricus (Whistler, 1929) - W France

A.c.taiti (Ingram, 1913) - N Portugal, NW Spain, Pyrenees

A.c.irbii (Sharpe & Dresser, 1871) - S Iberia, Corsica

A.c.italiae (Jourdain, 1910) - C and S mainland Italy

A.c.siculus (Whitaker, 1901) - Sicily

A.c.macedonicus (Dresser, 1892) - SW Croatia, Albania, Macedonia and N Greece

A.c.tephronotus (Gunther, 1865) - S and E Greece, W and C Turkey

A.c.tauricus (Menzbier, 1903) - Crimea

A.c.major (Radde, 1884) - NE Turkey, Caucasus area

A.c.alpinus (Hablizl, 1783) - SE Azerbaijan, N Iran

A.c.passekii (Zarudny, 1904) - SE Turkey, SW Iran

A.c.vinaceus (J. Verreaux, 1871) - C and NE China (E Qinghai to Gansu and Hebei)

A.c.glaucogularis (F. Moore, 1854) - N of E China (Shaanxi and Hubei to Zhejiang)

A.c.trivirgatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1848) - Honshu (Japan)

A.c.kiusiuensis (N. Kuroda, Sr., 1923) - Kyushu and Shikoku (Japan)

A.c.magnus (Clark, 1907) - C and S Korea, Tsushima I. (Japan)

[cuckooroller]

sibiricus - never heard of it. If someone has proposed it, it was apparently not deemed sufficiently different from race caudata (the Siberian ranger) and therefore either considered consubspecific or submerged within caudata.