Poecile


Poecile is a genus of birds in the tit family Paridae. It contains 15 species, which are scattered across North America, Europe and Asia; the North American species are the chickadees. In the past, most authorities retained Poecile as a subgenus within the genus Parus, but treatment as a distinct genus, initiated by the American Ornithologists Union, is now widely accepted. This is supported by mtDNA cyrochrome b sequence analysis.
The genus Poecile was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829. The type species was subsequently designated as the marsh tit by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1842. The name Poecile is from Ancient Greek poikilos "colourful". A related word poikilidos denoted an unidentified small bird. It has traditionally been treated as feminine ; however, this was not specified by the original genus author Johann Jakob Kaup, and under the ICZN the genus name must therefore be treated by default as masculine, giving name endings such as cinctus.

Species

The genus includes the following fifteen species:
ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
White-browed titPoecile superciliosuscentral China and Tibet.
Sombre titPoecile lugubrissoutheast Europe and southwest Asia
Grey-headed chickadee or Siberian tit Poecile cinctussubarctic Scandinavia and northern Asia, and also into North America in Alaska and the far northwest of Canada
Chestnut-backed chickadeePoecile rufescensPacific Northwest of the United States and western Canada, from southern Alaska to southwestern California
Boreal chickadeePoecile hudsonicusCanada, Alaska, and the northern edges of the northernmost portions of the lower forty-eight United States
Mexican chickadeePoecile sclateriMexico
Carolina chickadeePoecile carolinensisUnited States from New Jersey west to southern Kansas and south to Florida and Texas
Black-capped chickadeePoecile atricapillusAcross North America, from New England to Newfoundland in the east, and from Washington to Alaska in the west
Mountain chickadeePoecile gambeliwestern United States
Père David's titPoecile davidicentral China in southern Gansu, western Hubei, southern Shaanxi and Sichuan
Black-bibbed titPoecile hypermelaenuscentral and eastern China to southeast Tibet and western Myanmar.
Marsh titPoecile palustristemperate Europe and northern Asia
Sichuan titPoecile weigoldicuscentral China
Caspian titPoecile hyrcanusnorthern Iran, just extending into Azerbaijan.
Willow titPoecile montanustemperate and subarctic Europe and northern Asia