Perching birds
The Passerines, or perching birds, is the biggest order of birds - over half of the world's bird species are passerines. The group includes flycatchers, birds of paradise, crows and all the familiar garden birds of Britain. Passerine birds have three forward pointing toes and one backwards pointing one.
Family
Birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae)Birds of paradise are some of the most colourful birds on the planet. They live in tropical forests and though females are often dull in colour - because they need to be inconspicuous when sitting on the nest - the males are generally fabulously adorned.
Corvidae
Rook (species)Fringillidae
Common crossbill (species)Menuridae
Superb lyrebird (species)Muscicapidae
Robin (species)Pipridae
Wire-tailed manakin (species)Ploceidae
Red-billed quelea (species)Ptilonorhynchidae
Vogelkop bowerbird (species)Sturnidae
Starling (species)
Swallows and martins (Hirundinidae)Swallows and martins have evolved to be specialists at catching insects on the wing. Their streamlined shape and long, thin, tapering wing shape makes them fast and highly manoeuvrable.
Turdidae
Blackbird (species)
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About
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: it is roughly twice as diverse as the largest of the mammal orders, the Rodentia.
The names "passerines" and "Passeriformes" are derived from Passer domesticus, the scientific name of the type species – the house sparrow – and ultimately from the Latin term passer for true sparrows and similar small birds.
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Scientific Classification
Order: Passerine (Passeriformes)
Other Aves
- Anseriformes (family: Ducks, geese and swans)
- Daytime birds of prey (Falconiformes)
- Gamebirds (Galliformes)
- Gruiformes (family: Cranes)
- Hornbills, kingfishers and allies (Coraciiformes)
- Ostriches, rheas and allies (Struthioniformes)
- Owls (Strigiformes)
- Parrots (Psittaciformes)
- Pelicans, cormorants and allies (Pelecaniformes)
- Piciformes (family: Woodpeckers, wrynecks and allies)
- Shorebirds and allies (Charadriiformes)
- Storks and long-legged wading birds (Ciconiiformes)
- Swifts and hummingbirds (Apodiformes)
- Tubenoses (Procellariiformes)
Elsewhere on the web
- Passerine (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
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