| Cyanistes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paridae |
| Genus: | Cyanistes Kaup, 1829 |
| Type species | |
| Parus caeruleus Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
C. caeruleus | |
Cyanistes is a genus of birds in thetit family Paridae. The genus was at one time considered as asubgenus ofParus. In 2005 an article describing amolecular phylogenetic study that had examinedmitochondrial DNA sequences from members of the tit family, proposed that a number of subgenera includingCyanistes be elevated to genus status.[1] This proposal was accepted by theInternational Ornithologists' Union[2] and theBritish Ornithologists' Union.[3]
The genus contains three species:[2]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cyanistes caeruleus | Eurasian blue tit | Europe |
 | Cyanistes teneriffae | African blue tit | northern Africa and the Canary Islands. |
.jpg) | Cyanistes cyanus | Azure tit | Russia and Central Asia and northwest China, Manchuria and Pakistan. |
The nameCyanistes was introduced for a subgenus by the German naturalistJakob Kaup in 1829.[4] The word comes from theclassical Greekkuanos meaning dark-blue.[5] Thetype species was designated as theEurasian blue tit byGeorge Gray in 1842.[6][7]
