Mike:

Well put. It might be added that the "European" form occurs as far east as
the Amur Basin in the Khabarovskii Krai, that is, almost as far east (but a
little more southerly) as/than Redwing....If memory serves, there is also an
offshore AK record for (European) Great Tit in fall, either on one of the
Pribs or Gambell if I'm not mistaken. I find myself also wondering about a
cruise ship or trawler coming down from AK for retrofit/replenishing at one
of our local yards, as is common in the winter season, there are so many
more cruise ships around nowadays...Among memories of (western) Great Tit, I
remember that this species can be incredibly tame under the right
circumstances--at a bazaar in Ekaturinburg in Nov 2002, birds would mob
stands and land right on people with food items.

Taxonomic note: the Russians split eastern Great Tit (P. major minor if I
remember right) from the nominate form found in Europe and eastward into two
species sopme time ago, on the basis of differences in voice and plumage.
The differences can be pretty subtle in the field, however; and there is a
zone of hybridization/overlap in the Amur basin according to material I've
read. The (eastern) Great Tit occurs mostly on the Russian mainland, but is
also on Sakhalin and (not well advertised) there is a small introduced
population in Petropavlovsk, at the s.e. corner of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com