Periparus

Eck, Siegfried, 2006, The Palaearctic Titmouse Species (Aves: Paridae: Parus sensu lato) — A current survey *, Zootaxa 1325, pp. 7-54 : 24

Subgenus Periparus , type species Parus ater L., 1758

(Coal Tits s.l.)

Coal Tits in the broader sense: In Nepal J. Martens discovered a contact zone between P. ater aemodius and P. melanolophus , from which it could be concluded that the two are conspecific ( Diesselhorst & Martens 1972; Martens 1975; Martens & Eck 1995). Later studies of birds from this contact region raised the question whether the so­called “cinnamon­breasts” represented a form close to melanolophus that was on the verge of extinction, whereas the extreme western variant of P. ater aemodius was described as P. ater martensi Eck 1998 . West of the Thakkhola P. a. martensi becomes mixed with P. a. melanolophus ( Löhrl 1994; Martens & Eck 1995: 331–332; Eck 1998). — From NW Africa to NE Iran the Coal Tits are more strongly differentiated, and their relationships require better clarification. — In Nepal Martens (1971, 1975) furthermore discovered that the so­called “Fichtenmeisen” (“spruce tits”) comprise two different species, P. rufonuchalis (monotypic) and P. rubidiventris (markedly polytypic), because they are sympatric in broad areas but have ecological differences. The two species are so closely related that this amounts to one of the rare cases in which a sympatric monotypic species should (?) be included among the “component species” (Clancey 1964, 1966) of the same superspecies, here Parus [ rubidiventris ], as Martens (1975) had already proposed. However, the vocal differences are considerable ( Martens & Eck 1995: 326), so that for the present the question is merely raised; colour Fig. of the main forms l.c., Plate 2.