The nine-primaried oscines is a group of bird

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

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

(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 are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

. 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 have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

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 45 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Emberizid ...

Cardinalidae Cardinalidae (often referred to as the "cardinal-grosbeaks" or simply the "cardinals") is a family of New World-endemic passerine birds that consists of cardinals, grosbeaks, and buntings. It also includes several birds such as the tanager-like ...

Thraupidae The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird 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% of the Neotropica ...

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 t ...

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. They are not closely related to Old World warblers or Australian warblers. Most ...

and

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. The ...

—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 tail ...

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 a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...

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, 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 predominan ...

– 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, 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 b ...

– 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 ...

– 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 and

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...

. 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 their remarkable diversity in beak form and function. They are often classified as the subfamily Geospizinae or t ...

) and the

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...

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 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 of habitats includ ...

(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 The rosy thrush-tanager (''Rhodinocichla rosea'') or rose-breasted thrush-tanager is a species of bird in the currently monotypic genus ''Rhodinocichla''. It was formerly assigned to the family Thraupidae and more recently viewed as being of unce ...

– rosy thrush-tanager *

– 6 species: longspurs and snow buntings *

– 44 species: buntings *

– 53 species: cardinals * Mitrospingidae – 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 North America, and is the only member of the family Icteriidae. It was once a member of the New World warbler family, but in 2017, the American Ornithological Society move ...

– yellow-breasted chat *

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

Zeledoniidae The wrenthrush or zeledonia (''Zeledonia coronata'') is a unique species of nine-primaried oscine bird which is endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. Taxonomy and systematics The wrenthrush is the only member of its genus and family. Despite its ...

– wrenthrush *

Teretistridae The Cuban warblers are a genus, ''Teretistris'', and family, Teretistridae, of birds endemic to Cuba and its surrounding cays. Until 2002 they were thought to be New World warblers, but DNA studies have shown that they are not closely related to ...

– 2 species: Cuban warblers *

Nesospingidae The Puerto Rican tanager (''Nesospingus speculiferus'') is a small passerine bird endemic to the archipelago of Puerto Rico. It is the only member of the genus ''Nesospingus'' and has historically been placed in the tanager family, but recent st ...

– Puerto Rican tanager *

Spindalidae ''Spindalis'' is a genus consisting of four non-migratory species of bird. It is the only genus in the family Spindalidae. The species are mostly endemic to the West Indies; exceptions include populations of western spindalises on Cozumel Island ...

– 4 species: spindalises * Phaenicophilidae – 4 species: Hispaniolan tanagers

Notes

References

Passeroidea {{Passeroidea-stub