Basal Passeroidea

Core Passeroidea

Passerines

Tyranni: Suboscines

Passeri: Oscines

Passerida

Sylvioidea
Muscicapoidea and allies
Passeroidea

The 46 Orders

Paleognathae

Galloanserae

Columbea

Otidae

Gruae

Ardeae

Telluraves

Afroaves

Australaves

Core Passeroidea

Many of the basal Passeroidea are nectar-eaters. They seem to have arisen in Africa and spread across the old world tropics to Australasia. So far as I know, none are granivorous. Most rely on nectar, fruit, and insects. That changes with the core Passeroidea. They break out of the tropics into the Palearctic and begin to rely more on seeds, a hallmark of the finches and sparrows.

Urocynchramidae: Przevalski's Finch Domaniewski, 1918

1 genus, 1 species Not HBW Family

The Passeroidea include a new family, Urocynchramidae. This family contains one species, Przevalski's Finch, Urocynchramus pylzowi, which was previously thought to be an Emberizid bunting. Groth (2000) showed it was not an emberizid, and found it basal in the core Passeroidea. The Przevalski's Finch relies on seeds in winter, and lives in China, in the eastern Palearctic.

Peucedramidae: Olive Warbler Wolters, 1980

1 genus, 1 species HBW-15

Until recently, the Olive Warbler was considered one of the wood warblers, although there was some question as to whether it was really a warbler. The genes tell the tale, and the tale is that it is not a warbler (Groth, 1998, 2000; Klicka et al., 2000; Yuri and Mindell, 2002; Ericson and Johansson, 2003). Although it is a relatively basal member of Passeroidea, its exact position remains unclear. In the studies mentioned, it variously grouped with the sunbirds, accentors, and estrildid finches. Most likely, it has no close relatives. Accordingly, it is placed in its own family, Peucedramidae, which I tentatively treat as sister to Prunellidae, as in Groth (1998, 2000) and Ericson and Johansson (2003).

How the Olive Warbler arrived in America is unclear. It may be the last of a family of birds that came to America, or it may have always been a monotypic lineage. I've put it next to the accentors partly because some of the genetic evidence supports it, and partly because it seems plausible that the Palearctic accentors would be sister to an American bird family.

Prunellidae: Accentors Richmond, 1908 (1840)

1 genus, 13 species HBW-10

The position of the accentors is also somewhat controversial. They could be in the Estrildid clade, the Passerid clade, or basal to both (Groth, 1998, 2000; Klicka et al., 2000; Sorenson and Payne, 2001; Yuri and Mindell, 2002; Ericson and Johansson, 2003; Treplin et al., 2008; Fjeldså et al., 2010). The tree here follows Groth (1998), Ericson and Johansson (2003), and Fjeldså et al. (2010).

The genus Prunella has been studied by Drovetski et al. (2013). The order here is based on their Figure 3. Although the basal taxa seem reliably placed, there is somewhat less certainty about the shape of the tree starting with Dunnock, probably because the remaining species are all quite closely related. Their results do not support splitting the Black-throated Accentor, but there may be more than one species included in Alpine Accentor.

Estrildid Clade

The next three families form a clade that is sister to the remaining Passeroidea, the finches, sparrows and allies. These three families range across the southern portion of the Old World and into Australasia. None are native to the Americas and none reach the Palearctic. In other words, at this point the Passeroidea break neatly into two clades. The Estrildid group is primarily southern and Old World, the other apparently spreads out through the Palearctic to the New World and southern Old World, including Australasia. One branch even reaches the Hawaiian Islands.

Ploceidae: Weavers, Sparrows Sundevall, 1836

15 genera, 116 species HBW-15

Ploceidae tree The genera Plocepasser, Histurgops, Pseudonigrita, and Philetairus have sometimes been considered Passeridae, but Groth (1998) places them firmly in the Ploceidae.

The overall organziation is based on Groth (1998). The paper by Prager et al. (2008) has been consulted concerning the bishops and widowbirds. There doesn't seem to be a comprehensive genetic study of this family.

Amblyospiza may not belong with the weavers. However, the available genetic studies have not pinned down where it goes. Options range from sister to Prunella to outside of Passeroidea entirely. It may even merely be basal in Ploceidae. The Compact Weaver is sometimes given its own genus (Pachyphantes). Its method of nest construction is similar to Amblyospiza, and it has been suggested they may be closely related.

Viduidae: Indigobirds, Whydahs Cabanis, 1847

2 genera, 20 species HBW-15

The taxonmy follows Sorenson et al. (2004). They also found evidence that the Village Indigobird, V. chalybeata should be split. However, more subspecies need sampling before this is done.

The Barka Indigobird, Vidua larvaticola, is often referred to as the Baka Indigobird. The former is correct. Although Payne orginally used “Baka”, he meant the Hausa word with standard spelling “Barka” (see Payne and Barlow, 2004).

Estrildidae: Estrildid Finches Bonaparte, 1850

34 genera, 143 species HBW-15

Estrildidae tree The taxonomy follows Hooper and Price (2015), Sorenson et al. (2004), and Baptista et al. (1999). Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2009), which uses a smaller data set than Sorenson et al., is in general agreement that the genera below represent clades, but has a different overall arrangement. However, most of their groupings above genus level are poorly supported. One notable exception is their pairing of Euodice and Stagonopleura, where an entirely different arrangement is well-supported in Sorenson et al. Hooper and Price (2015) base their analysis on data from both Sorenson et al. (2004) and Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2009).

I've inserted subfamily names to show the two major clades. Except for Amandava, Estrildinae is Afrotropical. They are also frequently parasitized by Vidua. Lonchurinae is primarily Australasian, but ranges across the Oriental Region and Madagacar to Africa.

Note that White-capped Munia, Lonchura ferruginosa, has been split from Chestnut Munia, Lonchura atricapilla (Restall, 1997). Traditionally, these were considered separate species, until Delacour lumped them with the Tricolored Munia, Lonchura malacca.

Lonchurinae Steiner, 1960 (1847)

Estrildinae Bonaparte, 1850

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