The nine-primaried oscines is a group of bird

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

in the

suborder Order () 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 recognized ...

Passeri A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5,00 ...

(oscines) of the

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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

. The composition of the group has changed since the term was introduced but is now considered to consist of seven major families—

Fringillidae The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...

Emberizidae The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 44 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Emberizid ...

Cardinalidae Cardinalidae (sometimes referred to as "cardinal-grosbeaks" or simply "cardinals") is a family of New World-Endemism, endemic passerine birds that consists of Cardinalis, cardinals, grosbeaks, and Passerina, buntings. It also includes several ot ...

Thraupidae The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird family (biology), family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has a Neotropical distribution and is the second-largest family of birds. It represents about 4% of all avian species and 12 ...

Passerellidae New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. Although they share th ...

Parulidae The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the family Parulidae and are restricted to the New World. The family contains 120 species. They are not closely related to Old World warb ...

and

Icteridae Icterids () or New World blackbirds make up a family, the Icteridae (), of small to medium-sized, often colorful, New World passerine birds. The family contains 108 species and is divided into 30 genera. Most species have black as a predominant ...

—plus some small families. When Fringillidae is omitted the remaining six families are referred to as the "New World" nine-primaried oscines. The name of this group arises from the fact that all species within it have only nine easily visible

primary feathers Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...

on each wing (in reality most, if not all, also have a tenth primary, but it is greatly reduced and largely concealed).

Wallace's classification

In 1874 the British naturalist

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 pap ...

classified the passerines by the number of primary feathers and placed ten families in his nine-primaried group, the ''Tanagroid Passeres'': *

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

– wagtails and pipits * Mniotiltidae – New World warblers, now in Parulidae * Coerebidae – honeycreepers, now in Thraupidae * Drepanidae – Hawaiian honeycreepers, later Drepanididae, now in Fringillidae *

Dicaeidae The flowerpeckers are a family (biology), family, Dicaeidae, of passerine birds. The family comprises three genera, ''Dicaeum'', ''Prionochilus'' and ''Pachyglossa'', with 56 species in total. The family has sometimes been included in an enlarge ...

– flowerpeckers * Ampelidae – waxwings, now in

Bombycillidae 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 eyestripe ...

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 t ...

– swallows and martins * Tanagridae – tanagers, now in Thraupidae, and euphonias, now in Fringillidae * Fringillidae – finches, plus buntings, now in Emberizidae, and American sparrows, now in Passerellidae *

– grackles, New World blackbirds and orioles

Modern grouping

Six of Wallace's families are now included in the nine-primaried oscines: Mniotiltidae, Coerebidae, Drepanidae, Tanagridae, Fringillidae and Icteridae. The other four families are now known to be less closely related. Although the New World nine-primaried oscines are most diverse in northern South America, they are widespread throughout the New World including the

Greater Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality * ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record * "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014 *Greater Bank, an Australian ...

and

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

. They have also colonised the Galápagos (

Darwin's finches Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about 18 species of passerine birds. They are well known for being a classic example of adaptive radiation and for their remarkable diversity in beak form and function. They ...

) and the

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcano, volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three constituent parts of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascensi ...

group in the South Atlantic (''

Nesospiza ''Nesospiza'' is a genus of seed-eating birds in the tanager family Thraupidae found on the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean. Taxonomy and species list The genus ''Nesospiza'' was introduced in 1873 by the German ornith ...

'' and '' Rowettia'' in

). Two families, the

(buntings) and the

Calcariidae Calcariidae is a small family (biology), family of passerine birds. It includes longspurs and snow buntings. There are six species in three genera worldwide, found mainly in North America and Eurasia. They are migratory and can live in a variety ...

(longspurs and snow buntings), have colonised the Old World. The group without the Fringillidae, the New World nine-primaried oscines, is the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Emberizoidea. The superfamily comprises some 870 species or 8% of all birds. It is divided into 16 families: *

– 228 species: finches and euphonias * Rhodinocichlidae – rosy thrush-tanager *

– 6 species: longspurs and snow buntings *

– 44 species: buntings *

– 53 species: cardinals *

Mitrospingidae The Mitrospingidae is a family of passerine birds. It consists of three genera and four species. The family is found in South America and southern Central America. The family was identified in 2013, and consists of birds that have been traditiona ...

– 4 species: mitrospingid tanagers *

– 383 species: tanagers and allies *

– 136 species: New World sparrows, bush tanagers *

– 119 species: New World warblers *

Icteriidae The yellow-breasted chat (''Icteria virens'') is a large songbird found in America, and is the only member of the family Icteriidae. It was once a member of the New World warbler family Parulidae, but in 2017, the American Ornithological Socie ...

– yellow-breasted chat *

– 109 species: grackles, New World blackbirds, and New World orioles * Calyptophilidae – 2 species: chat-tanagers *

Zeledoniidae The wrenthrush (''Zeledonia coronata'') or zeledonia, is a unique species of nine-primaried oscine, endemic to the Talamancan montane forests. Taxonomy and systematics The wrenthrush is the only member of its genus and family. Despite its na ...

– wrenthrush * Teretistridae – 2 species: Cuban warblers * Nesospingidae – Puerto Rican tanager * Spindalidae – 4 species: spindalises *

Phaenicophilidae Phaenicophilidae is a family of passerine birds. It consists of three genera and four species, all endemic to Hispaniola, which have been traditionally placed in the families Thraupidae (''Phaenicophilus'') and Parulidae (''Xenoligea'', ''Microl ...

– 4 species: Hispaniolan tanagers

Notes

References

Passeroidea {{Passeroidea-stub