Poecile is a genus of birds in the tit family Paridae. It contains 15 species, which are distributed across Europe, Asia, and North America; the European and Asian species are known as tits, and the North American species as chickadees. In the past, most authorities retained Poecile as a subgenus within the genus Parus, but treatment as a distinct genus, initiated by the American Ornithologists Union, is now widely accepted. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis.