Birds Guide

Passeri
Superb Lyrebird as painted by John Gould of a British Museum specimen ( in real life, the Lyrebird's tail is different )
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia   Phylum: Chordata   Class: Aves   Order: Passeriformes   Suborder: Passeri
Families
Many, see text

A songbird or oscine is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of Passeriformes (ca. 4000 species), in which the vocal organ is developed in such a way as to produce various sound notes, commonly known as bird song. Songbirds evolved about 50 million years ago in the western part of Gondwana that later became Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica and later spread around the world.

This 'bird song' is essentially territorial in that it communicates the identity and whereabouts of an individual to other birds and also signals sexual intentions. It is not to be confused with bird calls which are used for alarms and contact, and are especially important in birds that feed or migrate in flocks.

Other birds have songs to attract mates or hold territory, but these are usually simple and repetitive, lacking the variety of many passerine songs. The monotonous repetition of the Common Cuckoo or Little Crake can be contrasted with the variety of a Nightingale or Marsh Warbler.

Although many songbirds have songs which are pleasant to the human ear, this is not invariably the case. Many members of the crow family make croaks or screeches which sound harsh to humans.

Under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy this suborder is divided into two parvorders, Corvida and Passerida. However, more recent research is casting doubt on the existence of Corvida as single parvorder, but given the present lack of any generally accepted redivision of Corvida into two or more groupings at the parvorder level, the families of suborder Passeri are listed below as being in either Corvida or Passerida.

Families

Corvida

• Menuridae: lyrebirds
  Atrichornithidae: scrub birds
  Climacteridae: Australian treecreepers
  Maluridae: fairy-wrens, emu-wrens and grasswrens
  Meliphagidae: honeyeaters and chats
  Pardalotidae: pardalotes, scrubwrens, thornbills, and gerygones
  Petroicidae: Australian robins
  Orthonychidae: logrunners
  Pomatostomidae: Australasian babblers
  Cinclosomatidae: whipbirds and allies
  Neosittidae: sittellas
  Pachycephalidae: whistlers, shrike-thrushes, pitohuis and allies
  Dicruridae: monarch flycatchers and allies
  Campephagidae: cuckoo shrikes and trillers
  Oriolidae: orioles and Figbird
  Icteridae: American blackbirds, New World orioles, grackles and cowbirds.
  Artamidae: wood swallows, butcherbirds, currawongs and Australian Magpie
  Paradisaeidae: birds of paradise
  Corvidae: crows, ravens, and jays
  Corcoracidae: White-winged Chough and Apostlebird
  Irenidae: fairy-bluebirds
  Laniidae: shrikes
  Vireonidae: vireos
  Ptilonorhynchidae: bowerbirds
  Turnagridae: Piopio

Passerida

• Alaudidae: larks
  Chloropseidae: leafbirds
  Aegithinidae: ioras
  Picathartidae: rockfowl
  Bombycillidae: waxwings and allies
  Ptilogonatidae: silky flycatchers
  Cinclidae: dippers
  Motacillidae: wagtails and pipits
  Prunellidae: accentor
  Melanocharitidae: berrypeckers and longbills
  Paramythiidae: tit berrypecker and crested berrypeckers
  Passeridae: true sparrows
  Estrildidae: estrildid finches (waxbills, munias, etc)
  Parulidae: New World warblers
  Thraupidae: tanagers and allies
  Peucedramidae: Olive Warbler
  Fringillidae: true finches
  Cardinalidae: cardinals
  Drepanididae: Hawaiian honeycreepers
  Emberizidae: buntings and American sparrows
  Nectariniidae: sunbirds
  Dicaeidae: flowerpeckers
  Mimidae: mockingbirds and thrashers
  Sittidae: nuthatches
  Certhiidae: treecreepers
  Troglodytidae: wrens
  Polioptilidae: gnatcatchers
  Paridae: tits, chickadees and titmice
  Aegithalidae: long-tailed tits
  Hirundinidae: swallows and martins
  Regulidae: kinglets
  Pycnonotidae: bulbuls
  Sylviidae: Old World warblers
  Hypocoliidae: Hypocolius
  Cisticolidae: cisticolas and allies
  Zosteropidae: White-eyes
  Timaliidae: babblers
  Muscicapidae: Old World flycatchers and chats
  Turdidae: thrushes and allies
  Sturnidae: starlings

See also

• list of birds

External link

• Oscines Tree of Life web project article July 31, 2006