A passerine (/ˈpæsəraɪn/) is any bird of the orderPasseriformes (/ˈpæsərɪfɔːrmiːz/; from Latinpasser 'sparrow' and formis '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their toes (three pointing forward and one back), which facilitates perching.
With more than 140 families and some 6,500 identified species,[1] Passeriformes is the largest order of birds and among the most diverse clades of terrestrial vertebrates, representing 60% of birds.[2][3] Passerines are divided into three suborders: Acanthisitti (New Zealand wrens), Tyranni (composed mostly of South American suboscines), and Passeri (oscines or songbirds).[4][5] Passerines originated in the Southern Hemisphere around 60 million years ago.[6]
The terms "passerine" and "Passeriformes" are derived from the scientific name of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus, and ultimately from the Latin term passer, which refers to sparrows and similar small birds.
Description
The order is divided into three suborders, Tyranni (suboscines), Passeri (oscines or songbirds), and the basalAcanthisitti.[7] Oscines have the best control of their syrinx muscles among birds, producing a wide range of songs and other vocalizations, though some of them, such as the crows, do not sound musical to human beings. Some, such as the lyrebird, are accomplished mimics.[8] The New Zealand wrens are tiny birds restricted to New Zealand, at least in modern times; they were long placed in Passeri.
Pterylosis or the feather tracts in a typical passerine
Most passerines are smaller than typical members of other avian orders. The heaviest and altogether largest passerines are the thick-billed raven[9] and the larger races of common raven, each exceeding 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) and 70 cm (28 in). The superb lyrebird and some birds-of-paradise, due to very long tails or tail coverts, are longer overall. The smallest passerine is the short-tailed pygmy tyrant, at 6.5 cm (2.6 in) and 4.2 g (0.15 oz).[10]
Anatomy
The foot of a passerine has three toes directed forward and one toe directed backward, called anisodactyl arrangement. The hind toe (hallux) is long and joins the leg at approximately the same level as the front toes. This arrangement enables passerine birds to easily perch upright on branches. The toes have no webbing or joining, but in some cotingas, the second and third toes are united at their basal third.
The leg of passerine birds contains an additional special adaptation for perching. A tendon in the rear of the leg running from the underside of the toes to the muscle behind the tibiotarsus will automatically be pulled and tighten when the leg bends, causing the foot to curl and become stiff when the bird lands on a branch. This enables passerines to sleep while perching without falling off.[11][12]
Most passerine birds have 12 tail feathers but the superb lyrebird has 16,[13] and several spinetails in the family Furnariidae have 10, 8, or even 6, as is the case of Des Murs's wiretail. Species adapted to tree trunk climbing such as treecreepers and woodcreeper have stiff tail feathers that are used as props during climbing.[14] Extremely long tails used as sexual ornaments are shown by species in different families. A well-known example is the long-tailed widowbird.
The chicks of passerines are altricial: blind, featherless, and helpless when hatched from their eggs. Hence, the chicks require extensive parental care. Most passerines lay colored eggs, in contrast with nonpasserines, most of whose eggs are white except in some ground-nesting groups such as Charadriiformes and nightjars, where camouflage is necessary, and in some parasiticcuckoos, which match the passerine host's egg. The vinous-throated parrotbill has two egg colors, white and blue, to deter the brood parasitic common cuckoo.[citation needed]
Clutches vary considerably in size: some larger passerines of Australia such as lyrebirds and scrub-robins lay only a single egg, most smaller passerines in warmer climates lay between two and five, while in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, hole-nesting species like tits can lay up to a dozen and other species around five or six.
The family Viduidae do not build their own nests, instead, they lay eggs in other birds' nests.[citation needed]
The evolutionary history of the passerine families and the relationships among them remained rather mysterious until the late 20th century. In many cases, passerine families were grouped together on the basis of morphological similarities that, it is now believed, are the result of convergent evolution, not a close genetic relationship. For example, the wrens of the Americas and Eurasia, those of Australia, and those of New Zealand look superficially similar and behave in similar ways, yet belong to three far-flung branches of the passerine family tree; they are as unrelated as it is possible to be while remaining Passeriformes.[a]
Advances in molecular biology and improved paleobiogeographical data gradually are revealing a clearer picture of passerine origins and evolution that reconciles molecular affinities, the constraints of morphology, and the specifics of the fossil record.[16] The first passerines are now thought to have evolved in the Southern Hemisphere in the late Paleocene or early Eocene, around 50 million years ago.[5][6]
The initial diversification of passerines coincides with the separation of the southern continents in the early Eocene. The New Zealand wrens are the first to become isolated in Zealandia, and the second split involved the origin of the Tyranni in South America and the Passeri in the Australian continent.[2][6][3] The Passeri experienced a great radiation of forms in Australia. A major branch of the Passeri, the parvorderPasserida, dispersed into Eurasia and Africa about 40 million years ago, where they experienced further radiation of new lineages.[6] This eventually led to three major Passerida lineages comprising about 4,000 species, which in addition to the Corvida and numerous minor lineages make up songbird diversity today. Extensive biogeographical mixing happens, with northern forms returning to the south, southern forms moving north, and so on.[3]
Perching bird osteology, especially of the limb bones, is rather diagnostic.[17][18][19] However, the early fossil record is poor because passerines are relatively small, and their delicate bones do not preserve well. Queensland Museum specimens F20688 (carpometacarpus) and F24685 (tibiotarsus) from Murgon, Queensland, are fossil bone fragments initially assigned to Passeriformes.[17] However, the material is too fragmentary and their affinities have been questioned.[20] Several more recent fossils from the Oligocene of Europe, such as Wieslochia, Jamna, Resoviaornis, and Crosnoornis,[21] are more complete and definitely represent early passeriforms, although their exact affinities are not known.
In Europe, perching birds are not too uncommon in the fossil record from the Oligocene onward, but most are too fragmentary for a more definite placement:
Wieslochia (Early Oligocene of Frauenweiler, Germany)
Resoviaornis (Early Oligocene of Wola Rafałowska, Poland)
That suboscines expanded much beyond their region of origin is proven by several fossils from Germany such as a presumed broadbill (Eurylaimidae) humerus fragment from the Early Miocene (roughly 20 mya) of Wintershof, Germany, the Late Oligocene carpometacarpus from France listed above, and Wieslochia, among others.[18][6] Extant Passeri super-families were quite distinct by that time and are known since about 12–13 mya when modern genera were present in the corvoidean and basal songbirds. The modern diversity of Passerida genera is known mostly from the Late Miocene onward and into the Pliocene (about 10–2 mya). Pleistocene and early Holocenelagerstätten (<1.8 mya) yield numerous extant species, and many yield almost nothing but extant species or their chronospecies and paleosubspecies.
In the Americas, the fossil record is more scant before the Pleistocene, from which several still-existing families are documented. Apart from the indeterminable MACN-SC-1411 (Pinturas Early/Middle Miocene of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina),[f] an extinct lineage of perching birds has been described from the Late Miocene of California, United States: the Palaeoscinidae with the single genus Palaeoscinis. "Palaeostruthus" eurius (Pliocene of Florida) probably belongs to an extant family, most likely passeroidean.
Systematics and taxonomy
Acanthisitti – New Zealand wrens (1 family containing 7 species, only 2 extant)
Phylogenetic relationship of the suborders within the Passeriformes. The numbers are from the list published by the International Ornithologists' Union in January 2020.[1][30]
The Passeriformes is currently divided into three suborders: Acanthisitti (New Zealand wrens), Tyranni, (suboscines) and Passeri (oscines or songbirds). The Passeri is now subdivided into two major groups recognized now as Corvides and Passerida respectively containing the large superfamiliesCorvoidea and Meliphagoidea, as well as minor lineages, and the superfamilies Sylvioidea, Muscicapoidea, and Passeroidea but this arrangement has been found to be oversimplified. Since the mid-2000s, studies have investigated the phylogeny of the Passeriformes and found that many families from Australasia traditionally included in the Corvoidea actually represent more basal lineages within oscines. Likewise, the traditional three-superfamily arrangement within the Passeri has turned out to be far more complex and will require changes in classification.[citation needed]
Major "wastebin" families such as the Old World warblers and Old World babblers have turned out to be paraphyletic and are being rearranged. Several taxa turned out to represent highly distinct lineages, so new families had to be established, some of them – like the stitchbird of New Zealand and the Eurasianbearded reedling – monotypic with only one living species.[31] In the Passeri alone, a number of minor lineages will eventually be recognized as distinct superfamilies. For example, the kinglets constitute a single genus with less than 10 species today but seem to have been among the first perching bird lineages to diverge as the group spread across Eurasia. No particularly close relatives of them have been found among comprehensive studies of the living Passeri, though they might be fairly close to some little-studied tropical Asian groups. Nuthatches, wrens, and their closest relatives are currently grouped in a distinct super-family Certhioidea.
This list is in taxonomic order, placing related families next to one another. The families listed are those recognised by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC).[1] The order and the division into infraorders, parvorders, and superfamilies follows the phylogenetic analysis published by Carl Oliveros and colleagues in 2019.[30][g] The relationships between the families in the suborder Tyranni (suboscines) were all well determined but some of the nodes in Passeri (oscines or songbirds) were unclear owing to the rapid splitting of the lineages.[30]
Relationships between living Passeriformes families based on the phylogenetic analysis of Oliveros et al (2019).[30] Some terminals have been renamed to reflect families recognised by the IOC but not in that study.[1] The IOC families Alcippeidae and Teretistridae were not sampled in this study.
^The name wren has been applied to other, unrelated birds in Australia and New Zealand. The 27 Australasian "wren" species in the family Maluridae are unrelated, as are the New Zealand wrens in the family Acanthisittidae; the antwrens in the family Thamnophilidae; and the wren-babblers of the families Timaliidae, Pellorneidae, and Pnoepygidae. For the monophyly of the "true wrens", Troglodytidae, see Barker 2004.[15]
^Specimen SMF Av 504. A flattened right hand of a passerine perhaps 10 cm long overall. If suboscine, perhaps closer to Cotingidae than to Eurylaimides.[23][19]
^Specimens SMF Av 487–496; SMNS 86822, 86825-86826; MNHN SA 1259–1263: tibiotarsus remains of small, possibly basal Passeriformes.[18]
^Oliveros et al (2019) use the list of families published by Dickinson and Christidis in 2014.[30][32] Oliveros et al include 8 families that are not included on the IOC list. These are not shown here. By contrast, the IOC list includes 15 families that are not present in Dickinson and Christidis. In 13 of these cases, the position of the additional family in the taxonomic order can be determined from the species included by Oliveros and colleagues in their analysis. No species in the families Alcippeidae and Teretistridae were sampled by Oliveros et al so their position is uncertain.[1][30]
^The order of the families within the superfamily Orioloidea is uncertain.[30]
^The order of the families within the superfamily Malaconotoidea is uncertain.[30]
^The order of the families within the superfamily Corvoidea is uncertain.[30]
^The taxonomic sequence of the superfamilies Locustelloidea, Sylvioidea and Aegithaloidea is uncertain, although the order of the families within each of the superfamilies is well determined.[30]
^The order of some of the families within the superfamily Emberizoidea is uncertain.[30]
^The family Teretistridae (Cuban warblers) is tentatively placed here. The family was not included in the analysis published by Oliveros et al (2019).[30] Dickinson and Christidis (2014) considered the genus TeretistrisIncertae sedis.[35] Barker et al (2013) found that Teretistridae is closely related to Zeledoniidae.[34]
^Chatterjee, Sankar (2015). The Rise of Birds: 225 Million Years of Evolution. JHU Press. pp. 206–207. ISBN9781421415901.
^Winkler, D. W., S. M. Billerman, and I.J. Lovette (2020). Lyrebirds (Menuridae), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, US. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.menuri1.01
^Madge, S. (2020). Thick-billed Raven (Corvus crassirostris), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, US. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.thbrav1.01
^Clock, B. (2020). Short-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant (Myiornis ecaudatus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, US. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.stptyr1.01
^Stefoff, Rebecca (2008). The Bird Class. Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. ISBN9780761426936.
^Brooke, Michael and Birkhead, Tim (1991) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology, Cambridge University Press ISBN0521362059.
^Jones, D. (2008) "Flight of fancy". Australian Geographic, (89), 18–19.
^Barker, F.K. (2004). "Monophyly and relationships of wrens (Aves: Troglodytidae): a congruence analysis of heterogeneous mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (2): 486–504. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.08.005. PMID15062790.
^Hugueney, Marguerite; Berthet, Didier; Bodergat, Anne-Marie; Escuillié, François; Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile & Wattinne, Aurélia (2003). "La limite Oligocène-Miocène en Limagne: changements fauniques chez les mammifères, oiseaux et ostracodes des différents niveaux de Billy-Créchy (Allier, France)" [The Oligocene-Miocene boundary in Limagne: faunal changes in the mammals, birds and ostracods from the different levels of Billy-Créchy (Allier, France)]. Geobios. 36 (6): 719–731. Bibcode:2003Geobi..36..719H. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2003.01.002.
^Gál, Erika; Hír, János; Kessler, Eugén & Kókay, József (1998–99). "Középsõ-miocén õsmaradványok, a Mátraszõlõs, Rákóczi-kápolna alatti útbevágásból. I. A Mátraszõlõs 1. lelõhely" [Middle Miocene fossils from the sections at the Rákóczi chapel at Mátraszőlős. Locality Mátraszõlõs I.]. Folia Historico Naturalia Musei Matraensis. 23: 33–78.
^
Gál, Erika; Hír, János; Kessler, Eugén; Kókay, József & Márton, Venczel (2000). "Középsõ-miocén õsmaradványok a Mátraszõlõs, Rákóczi-kápolna alatti útbevágásból II. A Mátraszõlõs 2. lelõhely" [Middle Miocene fossils from the section of the road at the Rákóczi Chapel, Mátraszõlõs. II. Locality Mátraszõlõs 2]. Folia Historico Naturalia Musei Matraensis. 24: 39–75.
^ abHír, János; Kókay, József; Venczel, Márton; Gál, Erika & GKessler, Eugén (2001). "Elõzetes beszámoló a felsõtárkányi "Güdör-kert" n. õslénytani lelõhelykomplex újravizsgálatáról" [A preliminary report on the revised investigation of the paleontological locality-complex "Güdör-kert" at Felsõtárkány, Northern Hungary] (PDF). Folia Historico Naturalia Musei Matraensis. 25: 41–64. Archived(PDF) from the original on 16 March 2021.
^The former does not even have recognized subspecies, while the latter is one of the most singular birds alive today. Good photos of a bearded reedling are for example hereArchived 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine and hereArchived 31 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
^ abcdeCracraft, Joel (2014). "Avian higher-level relationships and classification: passeriformes". In Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L. (eds.). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. pp. xvii-xxxiii [xxiv]. ISBN978-0-9568611-2-2.
Mayr, Gerald (2016). Avian evolution: the fossil record of birds and its paleobiological significance. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN978-1-119-02076-9.
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