Warbler

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A wood warbler Flickr - Rainbirder - Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix).jpg
A wood warbler

Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous.

Contents

Sylvioid warblers

These are somewhat more closely related to each other than to other warblers. They belong to a superfamily also containing Old World babblers, bulbuls, etc.

Passeroid warblers

The two families of American warblers are part of another superfamily, which unites them with sparrows, buntings, finches, etc.

Other

These are closely related to the titmice and chickadees

These are the most distinct group of warblers. They are not closely related at all to the others, but rather to the honeyeaters and fairy-wrens.

Related Research Articles

Adaptive radiation A process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species

In evolutionary biology, adaptive radiation is a process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms, particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources available, creates new challenges, or opens new environmental niches. Starting with a single ancestor, this process results in the speciation and phenotypic adaptation of an array of species exhibiting different morphological and physiological traits. The prototypical example of adaptive radiation is finch speciation on the Galapagos, but examples are known from around the world.

Passerine Any bird of the order Passeriformes, sometimes known as perching birds.

A passerine is any bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or songbirds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by the arrangement of their toes, which facilitates perching.

Songbird suborder of birds

A songbird is a bird belonging to the clade Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin oscen, "a songbird". This group contains 5000 or so species 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.

Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the cisticolas into Cisticolidae and the kinglets into Regulidae. In the past ten years they have been the subject of much research and many species are now placed into other families, including the Acrocephalidae, Cettiidae, Phylloscopidae, and Megaluridae. In addition some species have been moved into existing families or have not yet had their placement fully resolved. A smaller family of warblers, together with some babblers formerly placed in the family Timaliidae and the parrotbills, are retained in a much smaller family Sylviidae.

Old World babbler family of birds

The Old World babblers or Timaliidae are a family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae.

Parrotbill group of peculiar birds native to East and Southeast Asia

The parrotbills are a group of peculiar birds native to East and Southeast Asia, though feral populations exist elsewhere. They are generally small, long-tailed birds which inhabit reedbeds and similar habitat. They feed mainly on seeds, e.g. of grasses, to which their bill, as the name implies, is well-adapted. Living in tropical to southern temperate climates, they are usually non-migratory.

Tanager family of birds

The tanagers comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has an American distribution. The Thraupidae are the second-largest family of birds and represent about 4% of all avian species and 12% of the Neotropical birds.

Olive warbler species of bird

The olive warbler or ocotero is a small passerine bird. It is the only member of the genus Peucedramus and the family Peucedramidae.

Bush-warbler

Bush-warblers are small insectivorous songbirds of the genera Cettia, Horornis, and Bradypterus. They were formerly placed in the "wastebin" Old World warbler family. None of the genera as traditionally delimited are believed to be monophyletic.

<i>Cettia</i> genus of birds

Cettia is a genus of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers") which make up the core of the newly recognized family Cettiidae. They were formerly placed in the Sylviidae, which at that time was a wastebin taxon for the warbler-like Sylvioidea. The range of this genus extends from Europe to southeast Asia.

<i>Bradypterus</i> genus of birds

Bradypterus is a genus of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers") in the newly recognized grass warbler family (Locustellidae). They were formerly placed in the Sylviidae, which at that time was a wastebin taxon for the warbler-like Sylvioidea. The range of this genus extends through the warm regions from Africa around the Indian Ocean and far into Asia.

Wrentit species of bird

The wrentit is a small bird that lives in chaparral, oak woodlands, and bushland on the western coast of North America. It is the only species in the genus Chamaea.

The nine-primaried oscines are a group of songbird families from the parvorder Passerida in the infraorder Passerides. It is composed of the Fringillidae, Emberizidae, Passerellidae, Parulidae, Thraupidae (tanagers), Cardinalidae (cardinals), Icteridae (icterids) and the monotypic Peucedramidae. The name of this group arises from the fact that all species within it have only nine easily visible primary feathers on each wing.

Ashy-throated parrotbill species of bird

The ashy-throated parrotbill,, is a parrotbill. In old sources, it may be called Alphonse's crow-tit; though superficially resembling a tit it is not a member of the Paridae. The native range of this species extends from south-west China to northern Vietnam, and it might have become naturalised in one area in Italy.

Passerida clade of songbirds

Passerida is, under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, one of two parvorders contained within the suborder Passeri. While more recent research suggests that its sister parvorder, Corvida, is not a monophyletic grouping, the Passerida as a distinct clade are widely accepted.

Sylvioidea superfamily of songbirds

Sylvioidea is a superfamily of passerine birds, one of at least three major clades within the Passerida along with the Muscicapoidea and Passeroidea. It contains about 1300 species including the Old World warblers, Old World babblers, swallows, larks and bulbuls. Members of the clade are found worldwide, but fewer species are present in the Americas.

Macrosphenidae family of birds

The African warblers are a newly erected family Macrosphenidae, of songbirds. Most of the species were formerly placed in the Old World warbler family Sylviidae, although one species, the rockrunner, was placed in the babbler family, Timaliidae. A series of molecular studies of the Old World warblers and other bird families in the superfamily Sylvioidea found that the African warblers were not part of Sylviidae but were instead an early (basal) offshoot of the entire clade Sylvioidea. Some taxonomic authorities place the entire family Hyliidae here.

<i>Horornis</i> genus of birds

Horornis is a genus of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers") which make up the core of the newly recognized family Cettiidae. They were formerly placed in the Sylviidae, which at that time was a wastebin taxon for the warbler-like Sylvioidea. The range of this genus occurs from southeast Asia throughout the western Pacific. The most recently described species is the Bougainville bush warbler from Bougainville Island.

References

  1. Wilson, Eisner, Briggs, Dickerson, Metzenberg, O'Brien, Susman, & Boggs. Life on Earth, Chapter: Biogeography, Graphic: Hawaiian Honeycreepers, p. 857.