Great Tit

Taxonomy conform AviList: The Global Avian Checklist

Distribution

Subspecies

• newtoni - British Isles
• major - Europe to northwestern Iran, Siberia, Lake Baikal, and Altai and Sayan mountains
• kapustini - northwestern China (northwestern Xinjiang) to Mongolia and eastern Siberia
• corsus - Iberian Peninsula and Corsica
• mallorcae - Balearic Islands
• excelsus - northwestern Africa (Morocco to Tunisia)
• ecki - Sardinia
• aphrodite - southern Italy, Sicily, southern Greece, and Mediterranean islands including Cyprus
• niethammeri - Crete
• terraesanctae - northwestern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan
• karelini - southeastern Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran
• blanfordi - northern Iraq to north-central and southwestern Iran
• bokharensis - Russia to Tien Shan and Karatau mountains and northwestern Afghanistan
• turkestanicus - Lake Balkhash to western China (Xinjiang) and southwestern Mongolia
• ferghanensis - mountains in Tajikistan (Pamir and Alai) and Kyrgyzstan eastward to western Tien Shan
• intermedius - northeastern Iran and adjacent southwestern Turkmenistan

The Parus major complex is treated as comprising two species, western and central Palaearctic Parus major and southern and eastern Asian Parus cinereus (including subspecies in the minor complex), based on the level of mitochondrial DNA divergence between them (Zhao et al. 2012; Song et al. 2020), presence of a narrow hybrid zone (Kvist & Rytkönen 2006), and vocalizations (Päckert et al. 2005).