Cyanistes caeruleus or Parsus Caeruleus

[jcd123]

Hi

Which is correct for the Blue Tit and why the different names?

John

[Adam Cheeseman]

Cyanistes caeruleus is the new scientific name for the Blue Tit. The change is presumably down to some genetic study or other that has determined that they are not quite the same as the Parus tits. Whatever the case you can always blame it on the taxonomists.

Cheers,

Adam

[jcd123]

Thanks Adam

Just out of interest do you know if there are any websites that give details of what the scientific names actually mean.

Thanks
John

[Adam Cheeseman]

'fraid not. Just had a quick Google and didn't find anything. Sorry.

Cheers,

Adam

[Ferret]

John
Had a quick look on Google and found this site
uk.rec.birdwatching - Scientific bird names explained

[aeshna5]

Great Tit is now the only British tit in the genus Parus; P. major.

Coal Tit is in genus Periparus, Willow + Marsh in Poecile, Blue is Cyanistes + Crested is in Lophanes. It's mind-blowing the number of new scientific names we have to learn- especially when it's happening across all taxa of plants, animals, fungi, etc. One day a fuse is going to blow in my brain!

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Great Tit is now the only British tit in the genus Parus; P. major.

Coal Tit is in genus Periparus, Willow + Marsh in Poecile, Blue is Cyanistes + Crested is in Lophanes. It's mind-blowing the number of new scientific names we have to learn- especially when it's happening across all taxa of plants, animals, fungi, etc. One day a fuse is going to blow in my brain!

I'm not adopting any of the new names until the BTO do I reckon!

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

I'm not adopting any of the new names until the BTO do I reckon!

I think it's time to change then Gill. I just clicked on the BTO website + clicked on Blue Tit + gave the new name Cyanistes caeruleus, so I presume as all the tit nomenclature came in together the others will also feature the names I gave above.

British Birds magazine adopted the names a while back which follows the most recent accepted names by the relevant bodies.

[James M]

Blimey I must get an up to date book, as mine says all the Tits apart from Long-tailed are in the genus Parus.

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by James M

Blimey I must get an up to date book, as mine says all the Tits apart from Long-tailed are in the genus Parus.

I think virtually all the books will still have the old names as these changes are relatively recent; I think within last 18 months or so. We could do with a revamped Collins Bird Guide with not just name changes but all the recent splits,eg Herring, Caspian, Yellow-legged + American Herring Gull are now all treated as full species in their own right!

[jcd123]

Thanks for the replies

Typical blue tit Parsus Caeruleus was one of the few I could remeber

Thanks Ferret Ill have a look at that site

John

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by jcd123

Thanks for the replies

Typical blue tit Parsus Caeruleus was one of the few I could remeber

Thanks Ferret Ill have a look at that site

John

It was Parus not Parsus!

[jcd123]

ok if you want to get picky....one of the few i could remember, but not spell

thanks

john

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

I think it's time to change then Gill. I just clicked on the BTO website + clicked on Blue Tit + gave the new name Cyanistes caeruleus, so I presume as all the tit nomenclature came in together the others will also feature the names I gave above.

British Birds magazine adopted the names a while back which follows the most recent accepted names by the relevant bodies.

AArrgghhhhhh!!!!

Curses... It has taken them ages to catch up with the BOU I was sort f hoping it would never happen!! Well I shall use the changes in the new seasons reports!