Subspecies
There are twelve recognised subspecies.
- D. l. leucotos (Bechstein, 1802), the nominate subspecies, widespread across Eurasia from north, central and eastern Europe to northeast Asia, Korea and Sakhalin.
- D. l. lilfordi (Sharpe & Dresser, 1871) Pyrenees to Asia Minor, Caucasus and Transcaucasia.
- D. l. tangi (Cheng, 1956) Sichuan province, western China.
- D. l. subcirris (Stejneger, 1886) Hokkaido, northern Japan.
- D. l. stejnegeri (Kuroda, 1921) northern Honshū, Japan.
- D. l. namiyei (Stejneger, 1886) south Honshū, Kyushu, Shikoku, Japan, and Cheju-do island, Korea
- D. l. takahashii (Kuroda & Mori, 1920) Ullung Island (off eastern Korea).
- D. l. owstoni (Ogawa, 1905) Amami-O-Shima Island in the northern Ryukyu Islands, Japan.
- D. l. fohkiensis (Buturlin, 1908) mountains of Fujian province, southeast China.
- D. l. insularis (Gould, 1863) Taiwan.
- D. l. quelpartensis (Kuroda & Mori, 1918).
- D. l. uralensis (Malherbe, 1860).
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