Eastern Rock Nuthatch

SCI Name:  Sitta tephronota
Protonym:  Sitta tephronota Ann.Mag.Nat.Hist.(4), 10 p.450
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Sittidae / Sitta
Taxonomy Code:  pernut1
Type Locality:  Kokand, Fergana, Uzbeck, S.S.R.
Author:  Sharpe
Publish Year:  1872
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SITTA
(Sittidae; Ϯ Eurasian Nuthatch S. europaea) Late Med. L. sitta (Turner 1544) nuthatch  < Gr. σιττη sittē  bird like a woodpecker mentioned by Aristotle, Callimachus, and Hesychius; "55. SITTA.  Rostrum subcultrato-conicum, rectum, porrectum: integerrimum, mandibula superiore obtusiuscula.  Lingua lacero-emarginata." (Linnaeus 1758); "Sitta Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, p. 115. Type, by monotypy, Sitta europaea Linnaeus." (Greenway in Peters 1967, XII, 125). Linnaeus's Sitta comprised a single species.
Var. Sitla, Sida.
Synon. Arctositta, Callisitta, Cyanositta,  Dendrophila, Homositta, Leptositta, Melositta, Mesositta, Micrositta, Oenositta, Orthorynchus, Poecilositta, Poliositta, Rupisitta, Sittella.

tephronota / tephronotum / tephronotus
Gr. τεφρος tephros  ash-coloured  < τεφρα tephra  ashes; -νωτος -nōtos  -backed  < νωτον nōton  back.

SUBSPECIES

Eastern Rock Nuthatch (dresseri)
SCI Name: Sitta tephronota dresseri
dresseri
Henry Eeles Dresser (1838-1915) English traveller, ornithologist, oologist (subsp. Atlapetes leucopterus, syn. Lagopus lagopus scotica, syn. Merops boehmi, subsp. Poecile palustris, subsp. Prunella fulvescens (ex Accentor fulvescens pallidus Dresser, 1895), subsp. Sitta tephronota, subsp. Somateria mollissima, syn. Sturnus vulgaris porphyronotus).

Eastern Rock Nuthatch (obscura)
SCI Name: Sitta tephronota obscura
obscura
L. obscurus  dark, dusky, covered, obscure.
● ex “Dusky Duck” of Pennant 1785, and Latham 1785 (syn. Anas rubripes).
● ex “Brown Tern” of Pennant 1768, and Latham 1785 (syn. Chlidonias niger).
● ex “Yacúhú” of de Azara 1802-1805, No. 335: “Yacús  ...  Asi llaman los Güaranís á tres páxaros  ...  á otro llamado Mitú” (Penelope).
● ex “Dusky Petrel” of Latham 1785 (?syn. Pterodroma alba; unident.).

Eastern Rock Nuthatch (tephronota)
SCI Name: Sitta tephronota tephronota
tephronota / tephronotum / tephronotus
Gr. τεφρος tephros  ash-coloured  < τεφρα tephra  ashes; -νωτος -nōtos  -backed  < νωτον nōton  back.

Eastern Rock Nuthatch (iranica)
SCI Name: Sitta tephronota iranica
iranica / iranicus
Iran.