Parus | |
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Great tit Parus major | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Paridae |
Genus: | Parus Linnaeus, 1758 |
Type species | |
Parus major (great tit) Linnaeus, 1758 | |
Species | |
See text | |
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Distribution of the species in the genus Parus. Parus bokharensis is now treated as a subspecies of P. major |
Parus is a genus of Old World birds in the tit family Paridae. It was formerly a large genus containing most of the 50 odd species in the family Paridae. The genus was split into several resurrected genera following the publication of a detailed molecular phylogenetic analysis in 2013. [1] [2] The genus name, Parus, is the Latin word for "tit".
The genus Parus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae . [3] The genus name is Latin for "tit". [4] Of the 12 species included in the genus by Linnaeus, the type species was designated as the great tit (Parus major) by George Robert Gray in 1840. [5] [6]
The genus now contains the following three species: [2]
Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
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Great tit | Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 Fifteen subspecies
| Europe![]() | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
Cinereous tit | Parus cinereus (, ) Nineteen subspecies
| West Asia across South Asia and into Southeast Asia.![]() | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
Green-backed tit | Parus monticolus Vigors, 1831 | Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, Taiwan and Vietnam.![]() | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |