A songbird is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

belonging to the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Passeri of the perching birds (

Passeriformes A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 or so speciesEdwards, Scott V. and John Harshman. 2013. Passeriformes. Perching Birds, Passerine Birds. Version 06 February 2013 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Passeriformes/15868/2013.02.06 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ ccessed 2017/12/11 found all over the world, in which the vocal organ typically is developed in such a way as to produce a diverse and elaborate

bird song Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by fun ...

. Songbirds form one of the two major lineages of extant perching birds (~4000 species), the other being the

Tyranni The Tyranni (suboscines) are a suborder of passerine birds that includes more than 1,000 species, the large majority of which are South American. It is named after the type genus ''Tyrannus''. These have a different anatomy of the syrinx m ...

(~1000 species), which are most diverse in the Neotropics and absent from many parts of the world. The Tyranni have a simpler

syrinx In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx ( Greek Σύριγξ) was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous god Pan, she ran to a river's edge and asked for assistance from the river nymphs. In answer, ...

musculature, and while their vocalizations are often just as complex and striking as those of songbirds, they are altogether more mechanical sounding. There is a third perching bird lineage, the Acanthisitti from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

, of which only two species remain alive today. Some evidence suggests that songbirds evolved 50 million years ago in the part of

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final sta ...

that later became

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, Sri Lanka,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, New Zealand,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, before spreading around the world.

Description

The song in this clade is essentially territorial, because it communicates the identity and whereabouts of an individual to other birds, and also signals sexual intentions. Sexual selection among songbirds is highly based on mimetic vocalization. Female preference has shown in some populations to be based on the extent of a male's song repertoire. The larger a male's repertoire, the more females a male individual attracts. It is not to be confused with bird calls that are used for alarms and contact and are especially important in birds that feed or migrate in flocks. While almost all living birds give calls of some sort, well-developed songs are only given by a few lineages outside the songbirds. And still, not all songbirds proffer a call that is distinctly melodious. Songbirds do, however, possess a highly developed vocal organ, the

, that enables their sonorous activity. This organ, also known as a song box, can be found where the windpipe meets diverging bronchial tubes which lead to the lungs. The organ is a solid, bony structure lined with a film of membranes which air passes through as the songbird calls. While the song boxes of songbirds vary in size and intricacy, this does not necessarily determine the songbird's ability to voice their song. Researchers believe this has more to do with the length of the windpipe. Other birds (especially non-passeriforms) sometimes have songs to attract mates or hold territory, but these are usually simple and repetitive, lacking the variety of many oscine songs. The monotonous repetition of the common cuckoo or little crake can be contrasted with the variety of a nightingale or marsh warbler. On the other hand, although many songbirds have songs that are pleasant to the human ear, this is not invariably the case. Many members of the crow family (

Corvidae Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Cu ...

) communicate with croaks or screeches, which sound harsh to humans. Even these, however, have a song of sorts, a softer twitter that is given between courting partners. And even though some

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

s (which are not songbirds) can be taught to repeat human speech, vocal mimicry among birds is almost completely restricted to songbirds, some of which (such as the lyrebirds or the aptly-named mockingbirds) excel in imitating the sounds of other birds or even environmental noises. The birds from higher altitudes have evolved thicker downs (also known as jackets) to protect themselves from the changes in climate. Their feathers have outer and inner portions, with the lower down being fluffier and warmer to provide increased warmth.

Song repertoire and courtship

Sexual selection can be broken down into several different studies regarding different aspects of a bird's song. As a result, song can vary even within a single species. Many believe that song repertoire and cognition have a direct relationship. However, a study published in 2013 has shown that all cognitive ability may not be directly related to the song repertoire of a songbird. Specifically, spatial learning is said to have an inverse relationship with song repertoire. So for example, this would be an individual who does not migrate as far as others in the species, but has a better song repertoire. This suggests an evolutionary trade-off between possible alleles. With natural selection choosing traits best fit for reproductive success there could be a trade off in either direction depending on which trait would produce a higher fitness at that time period. Song repertoire can be attributed to male songbirds as it is one of the main mechanisms of courtship. Song repertoires differ from male individual to male individual and species to species. Some species may typically have large repertoires while others may have significantly smaller ones.

Mate choice Mate choice is one of the primary mechanisms under which evolution can occur. It is characterized by a "selective response by animals to particular stimuli" which can be observed as behavior.Bateson, Paul Patrick Gordon. "Mate Choice." Mate Choic ...

in female songbirds is a significant realm of study as song abilities are continuously evolving. Males often sing to assert their dominance over other males in competition for a female, sometimes in lieu of a combative episode, and to arouse the female by announcing a readiness to mate. Though less frequent, females have also been known to sing and occasionally in duet with a mate as an affirmation of their partnership. While some will sing their song from a familiar perch, other species common to grasslands will sing a familiar song each time they fly. Currently there have been numerous studies involving songbird repertoires, unfortunately, there has yet been concrete evidence to confirm that every songbird species prefers larger repertoires. A conclusion can be made that it can vary between species on whether a larger repertoire is connected to better fitness. With this conclusion, it can be inferred that evolution via natural selection, or sexual selection, favors the ability to retain larger repertoires for these certain species as it leads to higher reproductive success. During times of courtship, it is said that male songbirds increase their repertoire by mimicking other species songs. The better the mimicking ability, retaining ability, and the quantity of other species mimicked has been proven to have a positive relationship with mating success. Female preferences cause the constant improvement of accuracy and presentation of the copied songs. Another theory known as the "song-sharing hypothesis" suggests that females prefer simpler, more homogenous songs that signal a male of familiar territory. As birdsong can be broken into regional dialects through this process of mimicry, the foreign song of a newcomer suggests the lack of territorial possession. This can be costly in the wake of territorial conflicts between disparate songbird populations and may compel a female to prefer a male spouting a familiar song of the area.

Taxonomy and systematics

Sibley and Alquist divided songbirds into two "

parvorder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

s", Corvida and Passerida (standard taxonomic practice would rank these as infraorders), distributed in Australo-Papua and

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...

respectively.Selvatti, A.P. ''et al''. (2015
A Paleogene origin for crown passerines and the diversification of the Oscines in the New World
''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'', 88:1-15. Subsequent molecular studies, however, show this treatment to be somewhat erroneous. Passerida is a highly diverse lineage, uniting over one third of all bird species to include (in 2015) 3885 species). These are divided into three major superfamilies (though not exactly corresponding to the Sibley-Ahlquist arrangement), in addition to some minor lineages. In contrast, Sibley & Alquist's "Corvida" is a phylogenetic grade, and an artefact of the phenetic methodology. The bulk of the "Corvida" make up the large clade

Corvides Corvides is a clade of birds in the order of Passeriformes. Previously referred to as the core Corvoidea,Jønsson K.A., Fabre P.-H., Kennedy J.D., Holt B.G., Borregaard M.K., Rahbek C., Fjeldså J. (2016A supermatrix phylogeny of corvoid passerin ...

(812 species as of 2015), which is a

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to the Passerida. The remaining 15 oscine families (343 species in 2015) form a series of basally branching sister groups to the Corvoid - Passerid clade. All of these groups, which form at least six successively branching basal clades, are found exclusively or predominantly in Australasia. Australian endemics are also prominent among basal lineages in both Corvoids and Passerids, suggesting that songbirds originated and diverged in Australia. Scrub-birds and lyrebirds, of which there are just two species of each, represent the oldest lineage of songbirds on Earth. The

rufous scrubbird The rufous scrubbird (''Atrichornis rufescens'') is a bird species in the family Atrichornithidae. It is endemic to Australia. Taxonomy One of two species of ''Atrichornis'', known as scrubbirds, the only extant populations of the Atricho ...

, ''Atrichornis rufescens'', is essentially confined to the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, occurring in both Queensland and New South Wales sections. It is now only found at elevations above 600 m.Chris Cooney, "How songbirds island-hopped their way from Australia to colonise the world", ''The Conversation,'' August 31, 2016.
/ref>

Families

* Menuroidea ** Menuridae: lyrebirds ** Atrichornithidae:

scrub bird Scrubbirds are shy, secretive, ground-dwelling birds of the family Atrichornithidae. There are just two species. The rufous scrubbird is rare and very restricted in its range, and the noisy scrubbird is so rare that until 1961 it was thought t ...

s * Bowerbirds and Australian treecreepers ** Climacteridae: Australian treecreepers ** Ptilonorhynchidae:

bowerbird Bowerbirds () make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. They are renowned for their unique courtship behaviour, where males build a structure and decorate it with sticks and brightly coloured objects in an attempt to attract a mate. The family ...

s * Meliphagoidea: honeyeaters and allies ** Maluridae: fairy-wrens, emu-wrens and grasswrens ** Meliphagidae: true

honeyeater The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New G ...

s and chats ** Dasyornithidae: bristlebirds ** Pardalotidae:

pardalote Pardalotes or peep-wrens are a family, Pardalotidae, of very small, brightly coloured birds native to Australia, with short tails, strong legs, and stubby blunt beaks. This family is composed of four species in one genus, ''Pardalotus'', and sev ...

s ** Acanthizidae:

scrubwrens ''Sericornis'' is a genus of small, mainly insectivorous birds, the scrubwrens in the family Acanthizidae. Despite the similarity in shape and habits, the true wrens (Troglodytidae) are a quite unrelated group of passerines. The genus previous ...

, thornbills, and gerygones * Australopapuan babblers **

Pomatostomidae The Pomatostomidae (Australo-Papuan or Australasian babblers, also known as pseudo-babblers) are small to medium-sized birds endemic to Australia-New Guinea. For many years, the Australo-Papuan babblers were classified, rather uncertainly, with t ...

: Australasian

babbler Babbler may refer to: * Old World babbler, a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds * Australo-Papuan babbler, passerine birds endemic to Australia-New Guinea * Babbler (software), a French software company * Babbler (''Dungeons & Dr ...

s * Logrunners ** Orthonychidae:

logrunner The logrunners are two species of birds in the family Orthonychidae. They were previously considered conspecific, but as they differ significantly, they are now generally considered separate species. The family Orthonychidae also contains a thir ...

s * Other basal lineages ** Cnemophilidae: satinbirds '' Cnemophilus'' and '' Loboparadisea'' ** Melanocharitidae: berrypeckers and longbills **

Callaeidae Callaeidae (sometimes Callaeatidae) is a family of passerine birds endemic to New Zealand. It contains three genera, with five species in the family. One species, the huia, became extinct early in the 20th century, while the South Island kokak ...

: New Zealand wattlebirds kokako, saddleback and † huia ** Notiomystidae:

stitchbird The stitchbird or hihi (''Notiomystis cincta'') is a honeyeater-like bird endemic to the North Island and adjacent offshore islands of New Zealand. Its evolutionary relationships have long puzzled ornithologists, but it is now classed as the o ...

** Paramythiidae:

tit berrypecker The tit berrypecker (''Oreocharis arfaki'') is a species of bird in the family Paramythiidae. First described by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1875, it is monotypic within the genus ''Oreocharis''. It is found in the New Guinea Highlands ...

and crested berrypeckers ** Psophodidae: whipbirds, jewel-babblers and quail-thrushes **

Platysteiridae Platysteiridae is a family of small, stout passerine birds of the African tropics. The family contains the wattle-eyes, batises and shrike-flycatchers. They were previously classed as a subfamily of the Old World flycatchers, Muscicapidae. Thes ...

: wattle-eyes and batis ** Malaconotidae: bush-shrikes ** Machaerirynchidae: boatbills ** Vangidae: vangas, woodshrikes, and helmetshrikes ** Pityriasidae: Bornean bristlehead **

Artamidae Artamidae is a family of passerine birds found in Australia, the Indo-Pacific region, and Southern Asia. It includes 24 extant species in six genera and three subfamilies: Peltopsinae (with one genus, '' Peltops''), Artaminae (with one genus con ...

butcherbird Butcherbirds are songbirds closely related to the Australian magpie. Most are found in the genus '' Cracticus'', but the black butcherbird is placed in the monotypic genus '' Melloria''. They are native to Australasia. Taxonomy Together with ...

s, currawongs and Australian magpie (formerly in Cracticidae) ** Rhagologidae: mottled whistler ** Aegithinidae: ioras ** Campephagidae: cuckooshrikes and trillers ** Mohouidae: whiteheads ** Neosittidae:

sittella The sittellas are a family, Neosittidae, of small passerine birds found only in Australasia. They resemble nuthatches, but whilst they were considered to be in that family for many years they are now afforded their own family. They do not migrat ...

s ** Eulacestomidae: ploughbill ** Oreoicidae: Australo-Papuan bellbirds **

Pachycephalidae The Pachycephalidae are a family of bird species that includes the whistlers, shrikethrushes, and three of the pitohuis, and is part of the ancient Australo-Papuan radiation of songbirds. The family includes 64 species that are separated into fi ...

: whistlers,

shrike-thrush A shrikethrush, also spelt shrike-thrush, is any one of eleven species of songbird that is a member of the genus ''Colluricincla''. They have nondescript, predominantly brown or grey, plumage, but are accomplished singers, their calls described ...

es,

pitohui The pitohuis are bird species endemic to New Guinea. The onomatopoeic name is thought to be derived from that used by New Guineans from nearby Dorey (Manokwari), but it is also used as the name of a genus '' Pitohui'' which was established by the ...

s and allies ** Laniidae:

shrike Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, '' Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also know ...

s ** Vireonidae: vireos ** Oriolidae: orioles,

figbird The figbirds are a genus (''Sphecotheres'') in the family of Old World orioles found in wooded habitats in Australia, New Guinea, and the Lesser Sundas. Taxonomy and systematics Formerly, the three species have been considered conspecific, but a ...

s and † piopio (formerly Turnagridae) ** Dicruridae: drongos **

Rhipiduridae The family Rhipiduridae are small insectivorous birds of Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent that includes the fantails and silktails. Taxonomy and systematics There are four genera classified within the family: * Subfamily R ...

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named a ...

s **

Monarchidae The monarchs (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks. Monarchids are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland ...

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

s and allies ** Platylophidae:

jayshrike The crested jayshrike or crested shrikejay (''Platylophus galericulatus''), formerly known as the crested jay (despite not being a true jay) is a species of bird found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. It is the only member o ...

: crows,

magpie Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is on ...

s, and jays ** Corcoracidae: white-winged chough and apostlebird ** Melampittidae: melampittas ** Ifritidae: ifritabirds ** Paradisaeidae: birds of paradise * Passerida **

Petroicidae The bird family Petroicidae includes 51 species in 19 genera. All are endemic to Australasia: New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific Islands as far east as Samoa. For want of an accurate common name, the family is often called th ...

: Australasian robins ** Picathartidae: rockfowl **

Chaetopidae The rockjumpers are medium-sized insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus ''Chaetops'', which constitutes the entire family Chaetopidae. The two species, the Cape rockjumper, ''Chaetops frenatus'', and the Drakensberg rockjumper, ''Chaeto ...

rockjumper The rockjumpers are medium-sized insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus ''Chaetops'', which constitutes the entire family Chaetopidae. The two species, the Cape rockjumper, ''Chaetops frenatus'', and the Drakensberg rockjumper, ''Chaet ...

s ** Eupetidae: rail-babbler ** Bombycillidae:

waxwing The waxwings are three species of passerine birds classified in the genus ''Bombycilla''. They are pinkish-brown and pale grey with distinctive smooth plumage in which many body feathers are not individually visible, a black and white eyestri ...

s and allies ** Ptiliogonatidae: silky-flycatchers ** Hypocoliidae: hypocolius ** Dulidae: palmchat ** † Mohoidae: some Hawaiian honeyeaters, '' Moho'' and '' Chaetoptila'' genera, not closely related to Meliphagidae ** Hylocitreidae: hylocitrea **

Stenostiridae Stenostiridae, or the fairy flycatchers, are a family of small passerine birds proposed as a result of recent discoveries in molecular systematics.Beresford ''et al.'' (2005) They are also referred to as stenostirid warblers. Taxonomy and syste ...

: fairy-flycatcher and allies ** Paridae: tits, chickadees, and titmouse ** Remizidae: penduline-tits **

Nicatoridae The nicators are a genus, ''Nicator'', and family, Nicatoridae, of songbirds endemic to Africa. The genus and family contain three species. Taxonomy The systematic affinities of the genus have been a long-standing mystery. The group was origina ...

: nicators ** Panuridae: bearded reedling ** Alaudidae: larks ** Pycnonotidae:

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical A ...

s **

Hirundinidae The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

: swallows and martins ** Pnoepygidae: wren-babblers ** Macrosphenidae:

crombec ''Sylvietta'', the crombecs, is a genus of African warblers. Formerly placed in the massively paraphyletic Sylviidae, it is now considered to belong to a newly recognized family found only in Africa, Macrosphenidae. It contains the following sp ...

s and African warblers **

Cettiidae Cettiidae is a newly validated family of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler "wastebin" assemblage. It contains the typical bush warblers (''Cettia'') and their relatives. As a common name, cettii ...

: bush-warblers and allies ** Scotocercidae: streaked scrub-warbler ** Erythrocercidae: yellow flycatchers ** Aegithalidae: long-tailed tits ** Phylloscopidae: leaf-warblers and allies. Recently split from Sylviidae. ** Acrocephalidae: reed warblers and allies **

Locustellidae Locustellidae is a newly recognized family of small insectivorous songbirds (" warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler " wastebin" family. It contains the grass warblers, grassbirds, and the '' Bradypterus'' " bush warblers". These ...

: grassbirds and allies **

Donacobiidae The black-capped donacobius (''Donacobius atricapilla'') is a conspicuous, vocal South American bird. It is found in tropical swamps and wetlands in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Su ...

: black-capped donacobius **

Bernieridae The Tetrakas and allies are a newly validated family of songbirds. They were formally named Bernieridae in 2010. The family currently consists of eleven species (in eight genera) of small forest birds. These birds are all endemic to Madagascar. ...

: Malagasy warblers ** Cisticolidae: cisticolas and allies ** Timaliidae:

s **

Pellorneidae The jungle babblers are a family, Pellorneidae, of mostly Old World passerine birds belonging to the superfamily Sylvioidea. They are quite diverse in size and coloration, and usually characterised by soft, fluffy plumage and a tail on average t ...

: ground babblers ** Leiothrichidae: laughingthrushes and allies ** Sylviidae:

Old World warbler Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the ci ...

s ** Zosteropidae: white-eyes ** Arcanatoridae: dapple-throat and allies **

Promeropidae The sugarbirds are a small genus, ''Promerops'', and family, Promeropidae, of passerine birds, restricted to southern Africa. In general appearance and habits, they resemble large, long-tailed sunbirds, but are possibly more closely related to ...

sugarbird The sugarbirds are a small genus, ''Promerops'', and family, Promeropidae, of passerine birds, restricted to southern Africa. In general appearance and habits, they resemble large, long-tailed sunbirds, but are possibly more closely related t ...

s ** Irenidae: fairy-bluebirds ** Regulidae: kinglets ** Elachuridae: elachuras ** Hyliotidae:

hyliota The hyliotas are a genus, ''Hyliota'', of passerine bird from Africa. The taxonomic position of the genus has been a longstanding mystery. They have been formerly regarded as Old World warblers in the family Sylviidae, or related to the batises a ...

s ** Troglodytidae:

wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonl ...

s ** Polioptilidae: gnatcatchers ** Sittidae: nuthatches ** Tichodromidae: wallcreeper ** Certhiidae: treecreepers ** Mimidae: mockingbirds and

thrasher Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family Mimidae. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genera. These do not form a clade but are ...

s ** Sturnidae: starlings **

Buphagidae The oxpeckers are two species of bird which make up the genus ''Buphagus'', and family Buphagidae. The oxpeckers were formerly usually treated as a subfamily, Buphaginae, within the starling family, Sturnidae, but molecular phylogenetic studi ...

: oxpeckers ** Turdidae:

thrush ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

es and allies ** Muscicapidae: Old World flycatchers and chats ** Cinclidae: dippers ** Chloropseidae: leafbirds ** Dicaeidae:

flowerpecker The flowerpeckers are a family, Dicaeidae, of passerine birds. The family comprises two genera, ''Prionochilus'' and ''Dicaeum'', with 50 species in total. The family has sometimes been included in an enlarged sunbird family Nectariniidae. The ...

s ** Nectariniidae: sunbirds ** Passeridae: true

sparrow Sparrow may refer to: Birds * Old World sparrows, family Passeridae * New World sparrows, family Passerellidae * two species in the Passerine family Estrildidae: ** Java sparrow ** Timor sparrow * Hedge sparrow, also known as the dunnock or hed ...

s ** Ploceidae: weavers and widowbirds ** Estrildidae: estrildid finches (

waxbill Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. Despite the word "fi ...

s, munias, etc.) ** Viduidae: indigo birds and whydahs ** Peucedramidae: olive warbler ** Prunellidae:

accentor The accentors are a genus of birds in the family Prunellidae, which is endemic to the Old World. This small group of closely related passerines are all in the genus ''Prunella''. All but the dunnock and the Japanese accentor are inhabitants of t ...

Motacillidae The wagtails, longclaws, and pipits are a family, Motacillidae, of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Around 70 species occur in five genera. The longclaws are entirely restricted to the Afrotropics, and the wagtails are predo ...

: wagtails and pipits ** Urocynchramidae:

Przevalski's finch Przevalski's finch (''Urocynchramus pylzowi''), Przewalski's finch or Przevalski's pinktail, is an unusual passerine bird Endemism, endemic to the mountains of central-west China. The species is named after Mikhail Pyltsov, the Russian explorer w ...

** Fringillidae: true finches and

Hawaiian honeycreeper Hawaiian honeycreepers are a group of small, passerine birds endemic to Hawaii. They are closely related to the rosefinches in the genus ''Carpodacus'', but many species have evolved features unlike those present in any other finch. Their great ...

s (formerly Drepanididae) ** Parulidae: New World

warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers The ...

s, for example the

black-throated blue warbler The black-throated blue warbler (''Setophaga caerulescens'') is a small passerine bird of the New World warbler family. Its breeding ranges are located in the interior of deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in eastern North America. Over ...

s and allies **

Icteridae Icterids () or New World blackbirds make up a family, the Icteridae (), of small to medium-sized, often colorful, New World passerine birds. Most species have black as a predominant plumage color, often enlivened by yellow, orange, or red. Th ...

: American blackbirds,

New World oriole New World orioles are a group of birds in the genus ''Icterus'' of the blackbird family. Unrelated to Old World orioles of the family Oriolidae, they are strikingly similar in size, diet, behavior, and strongly contrasting plumage. As a resu ...

s, grackles and

cowbird Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus ''Molothrus'' in the family Icteridae. They are of New World origin, and are obligate brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species. The genus was introduced by English naturalist Will ...

s. ** Coerebidae:

bananaquit The bananaquit (''Coereba flaveola'') is a species of passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. Before the development of molecular genetics in the 21st century, its relationship to other species was uncertain and it was either placed with ...

** Emberizidae:

buntings The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 45 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Ember ...

** Passerellidae: New World sparrows ** Thraupidae: tanagers, true honeycreepers and allies ** Calcariidae: snow buntings and longspurs ** Cardinalidae:

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

s and allies

References

Video links

* http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/blog/are-songbirds-disappearing
Mockingbird singing

External links

Oscines
Tree of Life web project article July 31, 2006. {{Authority control Extant Eocene first appearances

Description

Song repertoire and courtship

Taxonomy and systematics

Families

See also

References

Video links

External links