A songbird is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 or so speciesEdwards, Scott V. and John Harshman. 2013. Passeriformes. Perching Birds, Passerine Birds. Version 06 February 2013 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Passeriformes/15868/2013.02.06 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ ccessed 2017/12/11 found all over the world, in which the vocal organ typically is developed in such a way as to produce a diverse and elaborate bird song. Songbirds form one of the two major lineages of extant perching birds (~4000 species), the other being the Tyranni (~1000 species), which are most diverse in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bi ...

and absent from many parts of the world. The Tyranni have a simpler

syrinx In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx (Greek Σύριγξ) was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous god Pan, she ran to a river's edge and asked for assistance from the river nymphs. In answer, s ...

musculature, and while their vocalizations are often just as complex and striking as those of songbirds, they are altogether more mechanical sounding. There is a third perching bird lineage, the Acanthisitti from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

, of which only two species remain alive today. Some evidence suggests that songbirds evolved 50 million years ago in the part of

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final st ...

that later became

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest co ...

, before spreading around the world.

Description

The song in this clade is essentially territorial, because it communicates the identity and whereabouts of an individual to other birds, and also signals sexual intentions. Sexual selection among songbirds is highly based on mimetic vocalization. Female preference has shown in some populations to be based on the extent of a male's song repertoire. The larger a male's repertoire, the more females a male individual attracts. It is not to be confused with bird calls that are used for alarms and contact and are especially important in birds that feed or migrate in flocks. While almost all living birds give calls of some sort, well-developed songs are only given by a few lineages outside the songbirds. And still, not all songbirds proffer a call that is distinctly melodious. Songbirds do, however, possess a highly developed vocal organ, the

, that enables their sonorous activity. This organ, also known as a song box, can be found where the windpipe meets diverging bronchial tubes which lead to the lungs. The organ is a solid, bony structure lined with a film of membranes which air passes through as the songbird calls. While the song boxes of songbirds vary in size and intricacy, this does not necessarily determine the songbird's ability to voice their song. Researchers believe this has more to do with the length of the windpipe. Other birds (especially non-passeriforms) sometimes have songs to attract mates or hold territory, but these are usually simple and repetitive, lacking the variety of many oscine songs. The monotonous repetition of the common cuckoo or little crake can be contrasted with the variety of a nightingale or

marsh warbler The marsh warbler (''Acrocephalus palustris'') is an Old World warbler currently classified in the family Acrocephalidae. It breeds in temperate Europe and the western Palearctic and winters mainly in southeast Africa. It is notable for incorpora ...

. On the other hand, although many songbirds have songs that are pleasant to the human ear, this is not invariably the case. Many members of the

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term " raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

family (

Corvidae Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Cu ...

) communicate with croaks or screeches, which sound harsh to humans. Even these, however, have a song of sorts, a softer twitter that is given between courting partners. And even though some

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittaco ...

s (which are not songbirds) can be taught to repeat human speech, vocal mimicry among birds is almost completely restricted to songbirds, some of which (such as the lyrebirds or the aptly-named mockingbirds) excel in imitating the sounds of other birds or even environmental noises. The birds from higher altitudes have evolved thicker downs (also known as jackets) to protect themselves from the changes in climate. Their feathers have outer and inner portions, with the lower down being fluffier and warmer to provide increased warmth.

Song repertoire and courtship

Sexual selection can be broken down into several different studies regarding different aspects of a bird's song. As a result, song can vary even within a single species. Many believe that song repertoire and cognition have a direct relationship. However, a study published in 2013 has shown that all cognitive ability may not be directly related to the song repertoire of a songbird. Specifically, spatial learning is said to have an inverse relationship with song repertoire. So for example, this would be an individual who does not migrate as far as others in the species, but has a better song repertoire. This suggests an evolutionary trade-off between possible alleles. With natural selection choosing traits best fit for reproductive success there could be a trade off in either direction depending on which trait would produce a higher fitness at that time period. Song repertoire can be attributed to male songbirds as it is one of the main mechanisms of courtship. Song repertoires differ from male individual to male individual and species to species. Some species may typically have large repertoires while others may have significantly smaller ones. Mate choice in female songbirds is a significant realm of study as song abilities are continuously evolving. Males often sing to assert their dominance over other males in competition for a female, sometimes in lieu of a combative episode, and to arouse the female by announcing a readiness to mate. Though less frequent, females have also been known to sing and occasionally in duet with a mate as an affirmation of their partnership. While some will sing their song from a familiar perch, other species common to grasslands will sing a familiar song each time they fly. Currently there have been numerous studies involving songbird repertoires, unfortunately, there has yet been concrete evidence to confirm that every songbird species prefers larger repertoires. A conclusion can be made that it can vary between species on whether a larger repertoire is connected to better fitness. With this conclusion, it can be inferred that evolution via natural selection, or sexual selection, favors the ability to retain larger repertoires for these certain species as it leads to higher reproductive success. During times of courtship, it is said that male songbirds increase their repertoire by mimicking other species songs. The better the mimicking ability, retaining ability, and the quantity of other species mimicked has been proven to have a positive relationship with mating success. Female preferences cause the constant improvement of accuracy and presentation of the copied songs. Another theory known as the "song-sharing hypothesis" suggests that females prefer simpler, more homogenous songs that signal a male of familiar territory. As birdsong can be broken into regional dialects through this process of mimicry, the foreign song of a newcomer suggests the lack of territorial possession. This can be costly in the wake of territorial conflicts between disparate songbird populations and may compel a female to prefer a male spouting a familiar song of the area.

Taxonomy and systematics

Sibley and Alquist divided songbirds into two " parvorders", Corvida and Passerida (standard taxonomic practice would rank these as infraorders), distributed in Australo-Papua and

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...

respectively.Selvatti, A.P. ''et al''. (2015
A Paleogene origin for crown passerines and the diversification of the Oscines in the New World
''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'', 88:1-15. Subsequent molecular studies, however, show this treatment to be somewhat erroneous. Passerida is a highly diverse lineage, uniting over one third of all bird species to include (in 2015) 3885 species). These are divided into three major superfamilies (though not exactly corresponding to the Sibley-Ahlquist arrangement), in addition to some minor lineages. In contrast, Sibley & Alquist's "Corvida" is a phylogenetic grade, and an artefact of the phenetic methodology. The bulk of the "Corvida" make up the large clade Corvides (812 species as of 2015), which is a

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to the Passerida. The remaining 15 oscine families (343 species in 2015) form a series of basally branching sister groups to the Corvoid - Passerid clade. All of these groups, which form at least six successively branching basal clades, are found exclusively or predominantly in Australasia. Australian endemics are also prominent among basal lineages in both Corvoids and Passerids, suggesting that songbirds originated and diverged in Australia. Scrub-birds and lyrebirds, of which there are just two species of each, represent the oldest lineage of songbirds on Earth. The

rufous scrubbird The rufous scrubbird (''Atrichornis rufescens'') is a bird species in the family Atrichornithidae. It is endemic to Australia. Taxonomy One of two species of ''Atrichornis'', known as scrubbirds, the only extant populations of the Atricho ...

, ''Atrichornis rufescens'', is essentially confined to the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, occurring in both Queensland and New South Wales sections. It is now only found at elevations above 600 m.Chris Cooney, "How songbirds island-hopped their way from Australia to colonise the world", ''The Conversation,'' August 31, 2016.
/ref>

Families

* Menuroidea ** Menuridae: lyrebirds ** Atrichornithidae: scrub birds * Bowerbirds and Australian treecreepers ** Climacteridae: Australian treecreepers ** Ptilonorhynchidae: bowerbirds * Meliphagoidea: honeyeaters and allies ** Maluridae: fairy-wrens, emu-wrens and grasswrens ** Meliphagidae: true honeyeaters and chats ** Dasyornithidae: bristlebirds ** Pardalotidae: pardalotes ** Acanthizidae:

scrubwrens ''Sericornis'' is a genus of small, mainly insectivorous birds, the scrubwrens in the family Acanthizidae. Despite the similarity in shape and habits, the true wrens (Troglodytidae) are a quite unrelated group of passerines. The genus previous ...

, thornbills, and gerygones * Australopapuan babblers ** Pomatostomidae: Australasian

babbler Babbler may refer to: * Old World babbler, a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds * Australo-Papuan babbler, passerine birds endemic to Australia-New Guinea * Babbler (software) Babbler is a French software company founded in Septem ...

s * Logrunners ** Orthonychidae:

logrunner The logrunners are two species of birds in the family Orthonychidae. They were previously considered conspecific, but as they differ significantly, they are now generally considered separate species. The family Orthonychidae also contains a third ...

s * Other basal lineages ** Cnemophilidae: satinbirds '' Cnemophilus'' and '' Loboparadisea'' ** Melanocharitidae: berrypeckers and longbills **

Callaeidae Callaeidae (sometimes Callaeatidae) is a family of passerine birds endemic to New Zealand. It contains three genera, with five species in the family. One species, the huia, became extinct early in the 20th century, while the South Island kokako ...

: New Zealand wattlebirds kokako, saddleback and † huia ** Notiomystidae: stitchbird * Corvides ** Paramythiidae:

tit berrypecker The tit berrypecker (''Oreocharis arfaki'') is a species of bird in the family Paramythiidae. First described by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1875, it is monotypic within the genus ''Oreocharis''. It is found in the New Guinea Highlands ...

and

crested berrypecker ''Paramythia'' is a genus of berrypecker in the family Paramythiidae. Species It contains the following species: References {{Taxonbar, from=Q16271623 Bird genera Taxa named by Charles Walter De Vis ...

s ** Psophodidae: whipbirds, jewel-babblers and quail-thrushes ** Platysteiridae: wattle-eyes and

batis Batis may refer to: * ''Batis'' (plant), a genus of flowering, salt-tolerant plants * ''Batis'' (bird), a genus of birds in the wattle-eye family * Batis (commander), an ancient military commander * Batis (lens), a series of full-frame Zeiss l ...

** Malaconotidae:

bush-shrike The bushshrikes are smallish passerine birds. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the family Malaconotidae, a name that allude ...

s ** Machaerirynchidae: boatbills ** Vangidae: vangas, woodshrikes, and helmetshrikes **

Pityriasidae The Bornean bristlehead (''Pityriasis gymnocephala''), also variously known as the bristled shrike, bald-headed crow or the bald-headed wood-shrike, is the only member of the passerine family Pityriasidae and genus ''Pityriasis''. It is an eni ...

: Bornean bristlehead ** Artamidae:

butcherbird Butcherbirds are songbirds closely related to the Australian magpie. Most are found in the genus '' Cracticus'', but the black butcherbird is placed in the monotypic genus '' Melloria''. They are native to Australasia. Taxonomy Together with th ...

s, currawongs and Australian magpie (formerly in Cracticidae) ** Rhagologidae: mottled whistler ** Aegithinidae: ioras ** Campephagidae: cuckooshrikes and trillers ** Mohouidae: whiteheads ** Neosittidae: sittellas **

Eulacestomidae The wattled ploughbill (''Eulacestoma nigropectus'') is a small bird from New Guinea. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Eulacestoma'' and family Eulacestomatidae. It is also known as the wattled shrike-tit or ploughshare tit. Taxono ...

: ploughbill ** Oreoicidae: Australo-Papuan bellbirds ** Pachycephalidae: whistlers, shrike-thrushes, pitohuis and allies ** Laniidae:

shrike Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, '' Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also kno ...

s ** Vireonidae: vireos ** Oriolidae: orioles, figbirds and † piopio (formerly Turnagridae) ** Dicruridae: drongos ** Rhipiduridae:

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as ...

s ** Monarchidae:

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

s and allies ** Platylophidae:

jayshrike The crested jayshrike or crested shrikejay (''Platylophus galericulatus''), formerly known as the crested jay (despite not being a true jay) is a species of bird found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. It is the only member o ...

s, magpies, and jays ** Corcoracidae: white-winged chough and apostlebird ** Melampittidae: melampittas ** Ifritidae: ifritabirds ** Paradisaeidae: birds of paradise * Passerida ** Petroicidae: Australasian robins ** Picathartidae: rockfowl ** Chaetopidae: rockjumpers ** Eupetidae: rail-babbler ** Bombycillidae: waxwings and allies ** Ptiliogonatidae: silky-flycatchers ** Hypocoliidae: hypocolius ** Dulidae: palmchat ** † Mohoidae: some Hawaiian honeyeaters, '' Moho'' and '' Chaetoptila'' genera, not closely related to Meliphagidae ** Hylocitreidae: hylocitrea **

Stenostiridae Stenostiridae, or the fairy flycatchers, are a family of small passerine birds proposed as a result of recent discoveries in molecular systematics.Beresford ''et al.'' (2005) They are also referred to as stenostirid warblers. Taxonomy and system ...

: fairy-flycatcher and allies ** Paridae: tits, chickadees, and titmouse ** Remizidae: penduline-tits ** Nicatoridae: nicators ** Panuridae: bearded reedling ** Alaudidae: larks ** Pycnonotidae: bulbuls ** Hirundinidae: swallows and martins ** Pnoepygidae: wren-babblers ** Macrosphenidae: crombecs and African warblers ** Cettiidae: bush-warblers and allies ** Scotocercidae:

streaked scrub-warbler The streaked scrub warbler (''Scotocerca inquieta''), also known simply as the scrub warbler, is a small passerine bird. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Scotocerca''. It is found in northern Africa and south-western Asia. It is a bi ...

** Erythrocercidae:

yellow flycatcher The little yellow flycatcher (''Erythrocercus holochlorus'') is a species of bird in the family Erythrocercidae. It is found in Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical o ...

s ** Aegithalidae: long-tailed tits ** Phylloscopidae: leaf-warblers and allies. Recently split from Sylviidae. ** Acrocephalidae: reed warblers and allies ** Locustellidae: grassbirds and allies ** Donacobiidae: black-capped donacobius ** Bernieridae: Malagasy warblers ** Cisticolidae: cisticolas and allies ** Timaliidae:

s ** Pellorneidae: ground babblers ** Leiothrichidae: laughingthrushes and allies ** Sylviidae: Old World warblers ** Zosteropidae: white-eyes **

Arcanatoridae Modulatricidae is a small family of passerine birds which are restricted to Africa. These species have been taxonomic enigmas in the past, having been moved between the families Muscicapidae, Turdidae, and Timaliidae ''sensu lato''; they are no ...

: dapple-throat and allies **

Promeropidae The sugarbirds are a small genus, ''Promerops'', and family, Promeropidae, of passerine birds, restricted to southern Africa. In general appearance and habits, they resemble large, long-tailed sunbirds, but are possibly more closely related t ...

sugarbird The sugarbirds are a small genus, ''Promerops'', and family, Promeropidae, of passerine birds, restricted to southern Africa. In general appearance and habits, they resemble large, long-tailed sunbirds, but are possibly more closely related to ...

s ** Irenidae: fairy-bluebirds ** Regulidae: kinglets ** Elachuridae: elachuras ** Hyliotidae:

hyliota The hyliotas are a genus, ''Hyliota'', of passerine bird from Africa. The taxonomic position of the genus has been a longstanding mystery. They have been formerly regarded as Old World warblers in the family Sylviidae, or related to the batises an ...

s ** Troglodytidae:

wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonl ...

s ** Polioptilidae: gnatcatchers ** Sittidae: nuthatches ** Tichodromidae: wallcreeper ** Certhiidae: treecreepers ** Mimidae: mockingbirds and thrashers ** Sturnidae: starlings ** Buphagidae: oxpeckers ** Turdidae:

thrush ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

es and allies ** Muscicapidae: Old World flycatchers and chats ** Cinclidae:

dipper Dippers are members of the genus ''Cinclus'' in the bird family Cinclidae, so-called because of their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater. Taxonomy The genus ''Cinclus'' ...

s ** Chloropseidae: leafbirds ** Dicaeidae: flowerpeckers ** Nectariniidae: sunbirds ** Passeridae: true

sparrow Sparrow may refer to: Birds * Old World sparrows, family Passeridae * New World sparrows, family Passerellidae * two species in the Passerine family Estrildidae: ** Java sparrow ** Timor sparrow * Hedge sparrow, also known as the dunnock or hedg ...

s ** Ploceidae: weavers and widowbirds ** Estrildidae: estrildid finches ( waxbills, munias, etc.) **

Viduidae __NOTOC__ The indigobirds and whydahs, together with the cuckoo-finch, make up the family Viduidae; they are small passerine birds native to Africa. These are finch-like species which usually have black or indigo predominating in their plumage ...

indigo bird __NOTOC__ The indigobirds and whydahs, together with the cuckoo-finch, make up the family Viduidae; they are small passerine birds native to Africa. These are finch-like species which usually have black or indigo predominating in their plumage. ...

s and whydahs ** Peucedramidae: olive warbler ** Prunellidae:

accentor The accentors are a genus of birds in the family Prunellidae, which is endemic to the Old World. This small group of closely related passerines are all in the genus ''Prunella''. All but the dunnock and the Japanese accentor are inhabitants of th ...

** Motacillidae:

wagtail Wagtails are a group of passerine birds that form the genus ''Motacilla'' in the family Motacillidae. The forest wagtail belongs to the monotypic genus ''Dendronanthus'' which is closely related to ''Motacilla'' and sometimes included therein. ...

s and pipits ** Urocynchramidae:

Przevalski's finch Przevalski's finch (''Urocynchramus pylzowi''), Przewalski's finch or Przevalski's pinktail, is an unusual passerine bird endemic to the mountains of central-west China. The species is named after Mikhail Pyltsov, the Russian explorer who accomp ...

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 usu ...

: true finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers (formerly Drepanididae) ** Parulidae: New World warblers, for example the black-throated blue warblers and allies ** Icteridae: American

blackbirds Blackbird, blackbirds, black bird or black birds may refer to: Birds Two groups of birds in the parvorder Passerida: * New World blackbirds, family Icteridae * Old World blackbirds, any of several species belonging to the genus ''Turdus'' in the ...

, New World orioles, grackles and cowbirds. **

Coerebidae The bananaquit (''Coereba flaveola'') is a species of passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. Before the development of molecular genetics in the 21st century, its relationship to other species was uncertain and it was either placed with ...

: bananaquit ** Emberizidae: buntings ** Passerellidae: New World sparrows **

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 Neotrop ...

tanager 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 Neotrop ...

s, true

honeycreepers The typical honeycreepers form a genus ''Cyanerpes'' of small birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. They are found in the tropical New World from Mexico south to Brazil. They occur in the forest canopy, and, as the name implies, they are specia ...

and allies ** Calcariidae: snow buntings and longspurs ** Cardinalidae: cardinals and allies

References

Video links

* http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/blog/are-songbirds-disappearing
Mockingbird singing

External links

Oscines
Tree of Life web project article July 31, 2006. {{Authority control Extant Eocene first appearances