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Cyanistes | |
---|---|
Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Paridae |
Genus: | Cyanistes Kaup, 1829 |
Type species | |
Parus caeruleus Linnaeus, 1758
| |
Species | |
C. caeruleus |
Cyanistes is a genus of birds in the tit family Paridae. The genus was at one time considered as a subgenus of Parus. In 2005 an article describing a molecular phylogenetic study that had examined mitochondrial DNA sequences from members of the tit family, proposed that a number of subgenera including Cyanistes be elevated to genus status.[1] This proposal was accepted by the International Ornithologists' Union[2] and the British Ornithologists' Union.[3]
The genus contains three species:[2]
Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|
Cyanistes caeruleus | Eurasian blue tit | Europe | |
Cyanistes teneriffae | African blue tit | northern Africa and the Canary Islands. | |
Cyanistes cyanus | Azure tit | Russia and Central Asia and northwest China, Manchuria and Pakistan. |
The name Cyanistes was introduced for a subgenus by the German naturalist Jakob Kaup in 1829.[4] The word comes from the classical Greek kuanos meaning dark-blue.[5] The type species was designated as the Eurasian blue tit by George Gray in 1842.[6][7]