Comparison of morpho-skeletal characteristics (using standardised criteria sets) of the Great Tit Parus major (Linnaeus 1758) in three Iranian populations (Mashhad, Noor and Hamedan)

In order to study morphometrical and skeletal differences between threepopulations of the Iranian subspecies of the Great Tits Parus major, 40 specimens werecollected during autumn 2001 to spring 2002. The specimens were obtained from threelocalities: Vakilabad forest park (Mashhad), Noor forest park (Noor) and Abbasabadgardens on the southern slopes of Alvand Mountain (Hamedan), representing P.m.intermedius, P.m. karelini and P.m. blanfordi, respectively. We utilised a large set (29) ofmorpho-skeletal characteristics for comparison in univariate and multivariate analysesusing SPSS and Past programs. The Bonferonni univariate test revealed that 21characteristics were significantly different among the three populations (p<0.05). TheTukey multivariate test showed that in a pairwise comparison of the measured factorsamong three paired populations, only nares to tip, humerus and mid-toe length weredifferent in all the three pairwise populations, while wing breadth, tail length, tail index,carpo-metacarpus, tarso-metatarsus bone, brain-case height, brain-case breadth, lacrymalbreadth and mandible length differed in only one of the three paired populations, and body length, shield width, wingspan, wing length, proportion of white wedge of the outer pair tail feathers to tail length, femur, tibiotarsus, profile length and height of the ramus mandible differed in two paired populations (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between any of the three pairwise populations for the remaining factors, i.e. bill length, bill depth,tarso-metatarsus length, ulna, radius, coracoid, interorbital constriction and bill length by side (p>0.05). While PCA analysis showed that the populations of Mashhad and Noor are of different ecotypes, cluster analysis (which considered all morphometric measurements) suggested the Hamedan birds as the most differentiated population of the three.Mitochondrial sequences by other authors showed that the three geographically closepopulations are distinct from each other.