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Sitta villosa Verreaux, 1865
From a study of the cytochrome-b gene of mtDNA in ten nuthatch species, Pasquet (1998) demonstrated that this species seems to be more closely related to Sitta whiteheadi Sharpe, 1884, of Corsica, and less to North American Sitta canadensis Linnaeus, 1766.
The variation in the species is discussed by Nazarenko (2006; this issue) who concludes that birds from Ningxia should be attached to western bangsi Stresemann, 1929, and not to the nominate eastern form, and that corea Ogilvie-Grant, 1906, should be recognized pending more conclusive studies of this species in Ussuriland and Korea. Its presence on Sakhalin, whence there is one report mentioned by Harrap (1996), also needs to be investigated further.