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Poecile

Poecile
Willow tit, Poecile montanus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Paridae
Genus:	Poecile Kaup, 1829
Type species
Parus palustris Linnaeus, 1758
Species
see text

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.^[1] This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis.^[2]

The genus Poecile was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829.^[3] The type species was subsequently designated as the marsh tit (Poecile palustris) by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1842.^[4][5] The name Poecile is from Ancient Greek poikilos "colourful". A related word poikilidos denoted an unidentified small bird.^[6] It has traditionally been treated as feminine (giving name endings such as cincta); 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.^[1]

The genus includes the following fifteen species:^[8]

Image	Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
	White-browed tit	Poecile superciliosus	central China and Tibet.
	Sombre tit	Poecile lugubris	southeast Europe and southwest Asia
	Grey-headed chickadee (North American name) or Siberian tit (European name)	Poecile cinctus	subarctic Scandinavia and northern Asia, and also into North America in Alaska and the far northwest of Canada
	Chestnut-backed chickadee	Poecile rufescens	Pacific Northwest of the United States and western Canada, from southern Alaska to southwestern California
	Boreal chickadee	Poecile hudsonicus	Canada, Alaska, and northernmost portions of the lower 48 United States
	Mexican chickadee	Poecile sclateri	Mexico
	Carolina chickadee	Poecile carolinensis	United States from New Jersey west to southern Kansas and south to Florida and Texas
	Black-capped chickadee	Poecile atricapillus	Across North America, from New England to Newfoundland in the east, and from Washington to Alaska in the west
	Mountain chickadee	Poecile gambeli	western United States
	Père David's tit	Poecile davidi	central China in southern Gansu, western Hubei, southern Shaanxi and Sichuan
	Black-bibbed tit	Poecile hypermelaenus	central and eastern China to southeast Tibet and western Myanmar.
	Marsh tit	Poecile palustris	temperate Europe and northern Asia
	Sichuan tit	Poecile weigoldicus	central China
	Caspian tit	Poecile hyrcanus	northern Iran, just extending into Azerbaijan.
	Willow tit	Poecile montanus	temperate and subarctic Europe and northern Asia

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