| Poecile | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Willow tit,Poecile montanus | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paridae |
| Genus: | Poecile Kaup, 1829 |
| Type species | |
| Parus palustris Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
see text | |
Poecile is agenus of birds in thetit familyParidae. It contains 15species, which are scattered acrossNorth America,Europe andAsia; the North American species are thechickadees. In the past, most authorities retainedPoecile as a subgenus within the genusParus, but treatment as a distinct genus, initiated by theAmerican Ornithologists Union, is now widely accepted.[1] This is supported bymtDNAcytochromebsequence analysis.[2]
The genusPoecile was erected by the German naturalistJohann Jakob Kaup in 1829.[3] Thetype species was subsequently designated as themarsh tit (Poecile palustris) by English zoologistGeorge Robert Gray in 1842.[4][5] The namePoecile is fromAncient Greekpoikilos "colourful". A related wordpoikilidos denoted an unidentified small bird.[6] It has traditionally been treated as feminine (giving name endings such ascincta); however, this was not specified by the original genus authorJohann Jakob Kaup, and under theICZN the genus name must therefore be treated by default as masculine, giving name endings such ascinctus.[1]
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| Phylogeny of thePoecile based on Tritsch et al. 2017.[7] |
The genus includes the following fifteen species:[8]
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | White-browed tit | Poecile superciliosus | central China and Tibet. |
 | Sombre tit | Poecile lugubris | southeast Europe and southwest Asia |
 | Grey-headed chickadee (North American name) or Siberian tit (European name) | Poecile cinctus | subarctic Scandinavia and northern Asia, and also into North America in Alaska and the far northwest of Canada |
.jpg) | Chestnut-backed chickadee | Poecile rufescens | Pacific Northwest of the United States and western Canada, from southern Alaska to southwestern California |
 | Boreal chickadee | Poecile hudsonicus | Canada, Alaska, and northernmost portions of the lower 48 United States |
.jpg) | Mexican chickadee | Poecile sclateri | Mexico |
 | Carolina chickadee | Poecile carolinensis | United States from New Jersey west to southern Kansas and south to Florida and Texas |
 | Black-capped chickadee | Poecile atricapillus | Across North America, from New England to Newfoundland in the east, and from Washington to Alaska in the west |
.jpg) | Mountain chickadee | Poecile gambeli | western United States |
| Père David's tit | Poecile davidi | central China in southern Gansu, western Hubei, southern Shaanxi and Sichuan | |
 | Black-bibbed tit | Poecile hypermelaenus | central and eastern China to southeast Tibet and western Myanmar. |
_(16).JPG) | Marsh tit | Poecile palustris | temperate Europe and northern Asia |
 | Sichuan tit | Poecile weigoldicus | central China |
| Caspian tit | Poecile hyrcanus | northern Iran, just extending into Azerbaijan. | |
 | Willow tit | Poecile montanus | temperate and subarctic Europe and northern Asia |
| National | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
