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Tits and Chickadees
Great Tit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Paridae Vigors, 1825
Genera
5-10, see text.
Synonyms
see text

The tits, chickadees, and titmice, family Paridae, are a large family of small passerine birds which occur in the northern hemisphere and Africa. Most were formerly in the genus Parus.

These birds are called "chickadees" (onomatopoeic, derived from their distinctive "chick-a dee dee dee" alarm call) or "titmice" in North America, and just "tits" in the rest of the English speaking world. The name titmouse is attested from the 14th century, composed of the Old English name for the bird, mase (Proto-Germanic *maison) and tit, denoting something small. The spelling was influenced by mouse in the 16th century.

These birds are mainly small stocky woodland species with short stout bills. Some have crests. They are adaptable birds, with a mixed diet including seeds and insects. Many species will live around human habitation and come readily to bird feeders for nuts or seed, and learn to take other foods. In Britain, Great Tits and Blue Tits famously learned to break open the foil caps sealing bottles of milk that had been delivered to homes to get at the cream floating on top.

These are hole-nesting birds laying speckled white eggs.

More recently, the large Parus group has been gradually split into several genera (as indicated below), which has been pioneered by North American ornithological authorities and to a more limited degree (as of now) elsewhere. Whereas in the mid-1990s, only Pseudopodoces, Baeolophus, Melanochlora and Sylviparus were considered well-supported by the available data as distinct from Parus (Harrap & Quinn 1996). Today, this arrangement is considered paraphyletic as indicated by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis and Parus is best restricted to the Parus major - Parus fasciiventer clade, and even the latter species' closest relatives might be considered a distinct genus (Gill et al. 2005).

In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the Paridae family is much enlarged to include related groups such as the Penduline tits and Long-tailed tits, but while the former are quite close to the titmice indeed and could conceivably included in that family together with the stenostirid "warblers", the long-tailed tits are not. Indeed, the Yellow-browed Tit and the Sultan Tit are possibly more distant to the titmice than are the penduline tits (Gill et al. 2005 and Jønsson & Fjeldsa 2006). If the two current families are lumped into the Paridae, the titmice would be a subfamily Parinae.

Alternatively, all tits - save the 2 monotypic genera discussed in the preceding section and possibly Cyanistes, but including Hume's Ground Tit - could be lumped in Parus. In any case, 4 major clades of "typical" tits can be recognized: the dark-capped chickadees and their relatives (Poecile including Sittiparus), the long-crested Baeolophus and Lophophanes species, the usually tufted, white-cheeked Periparus (including Pardaliparus) with more subdued coloration and finally Parus sensu stricto (including Melaniparus and Macholophus). Still, the interrelationship of these as well as the relationships of many species within the clades are not well resolved at all; analysis of morphology and biogeography probably gives more a robust picture than the available molecular data (Gill et al., 2005).

Titmice have settled North America twice, probably at some time during the Early-Mid Pliocene. The first were the ancestors of Baeolophus; chickadees arrived somewhat later (Gill et al., 2005).

FAMILY PARIDAE

• Penduline tits and
• stenostirid "warblers"

might be included here

• Genus Sylviparus
  • Yellow-browed Tit, Sylviparus modestus

• Genus Melanochlora
  • Sultan Tit, Melanochlora sultanea

These two monotypic genera are possibly less close to titmice than are the penduline tits.

• Genus Cyanistes - frequently included in Parus
  • Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleus
  • Azure Tit, Cyanistes cyanus
  • Yellow-breasted Tit, Cyanistes flavipectus

• Genus Baeolophus
  • Bridled Titmouse, Baeolophus wollweberi
  • Oak Titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus
  • Juniper Titmouse, Baeolophus ridgwayi
  • Tufted Titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor
  • Black-crested Titmouse, Baeolophus atricristatus

• Genus Lophophanes - frequently included in Parus
  • Crested Tit, Lophophanes cristatus
  • Grey-crested Tit, Lophophanes dichrous

• Genus Periparus - frequently included in Parus
  • Rufous-naped Tit or Black-breasted Tit, Periparus rufonuchalis
  • Rufous-vented Tit, Periparus rubidiventris
  • Palawan Tit, Periparus amabilis - sometimes separated in Pardaliparus
  • Yellow-bellied Tit, Periparus venustulus - sometimes separated in Pardaliparus
  • Elegant Tit, Periparus elegans - probably paraphyletic; sometimes separated in Pardaliparus
  • Coal Tit, Periparus ater - possibly paraphyletic
    • Spot-winged Tit or Black-crested Tit, Periparus ater melanolophus

• Genus Poecile - frequently included in Parus
  • White-browed Tit, Poecile superciliosa
  • Sombre Tit, Poecile lugubris
  • Varied Tit, Poecile varia - sometimes separated in Sittiparus
    • Daito Varied Tit, Poecile varia orii - extinct (c.1940s)
  • White-fronted Tit, Poecile semilarvata - sometimes separated in Sittiparus
  • Caspian Tit, Poecile hyrcana
  • Père David's Tit, Poecile davidi
  • Marsh Tit, Poecile palustris
    • Black-bibbed Tit, Poecile (palustris) hypermelaena
  • Willow Tit, Poecile montana
  • Songar Tit, Poecile songara
  • Carolina Chickadee, Poecile carolinensis
  • Mexican Chickadee, Poecile sclateri
  • Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus
  • Mountain Chickadee, Poecile gambeli
  • Siberian Tit or Gray-headed Chickadee, Poecile cincta
  • Boreal Chickadee, Poecile hudsonica
  • Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens

• Genus Parus
  • Carp's Tit, Parus carpi - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • White-bellied Tit, Parus albiventris - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • White-shouldered Tit, Parus guineensis - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • White-winged Black Tit, Parus leucomelas - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Southern Black Tit, Parus niger - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • White-backed Tit, Parus leuconotus - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Dusky Tit, Parus funereus - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Rufous-bellied Tit, Parus rufiventris - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Cinnamon-breasted Tit, Parus pallidiventris - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Red-throated Tit, Parus fringillinus - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Stripe-breasted Tit, Parus fasciiventer - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Acacia Tit or Somali Tit, Parus thruppi - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Miombo Tit, Parus griseiventris - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Ashy Tit, Parus cinerascens - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Southern Grey Tit, Parus afer - sometimes separated in Melaniparus
  • Yellow Tit, Parus holsti - sometimes separated in Macholophus
  • Yellow-cheeked Tit, Parus spilonotus
  • Black-lored Tit, Parus xanthogenys - sometimes separated in Macholophus
  • Great Tit, Parus major
  • Turkestan Tit, Parus bokharensis
  • Japanese Tit, Parus minor
    • South China Grey Tit, Parus (minor) cinereus
  • Green-backed Tit, Parus monticolus
  • White-winged Tit, Parus nuchalis

• Genus Pseudopodoces
  • Hume's Ground Tit, previously "Hume's Ground Jay", Pseudopodoces humilis

    This species has only recently been removed from the Crow family Corvidae and placed here^{[citation needed]}.

• Gill, Frank B.; Slikas, Beth & Sheldon, Frederick H. (2005): Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae): II. Species relationships based on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene. Auk 122: 121-143. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[0121:POTPIS]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract

• Harrap, Simon & Quinn, David (1996): Tits, Nuthatches & Treecreepers. Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-3964-4

• Jønsson, Knud A. & Fjeldså, Jon (2006): Determining biogeographical patterns of dispersal and diversification in oscine passerine birds in Australia, Southeast Asia and Africa. J. Biogeogr. 33(7): 1155–1165. DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01507.x (HTML abstract)

• Internet Bird Collection: Titmouse videos