Emberizidae

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Emberizidae
American Tree SparrowSpizella arborea
American Tree Sparrow
Spizella arborea
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Suborder: Passeri
Family: Emberizidae
Vigors, 1831
Genera

Over 70, see text

The Emberizidae are a large family of passerine birds.

They are seed-eating birds with a distinctively shaped bill. In Europe, most species are named as buntings.

The Emberizidae family probably originated in South America and spread first into North America before crossing into eastern Asia and continuing to move west. This explains the comparative paucity of emberizid species in Europe and Africa when compared to the Americas.

In North America, most of the species in this family are known as (American) Sparrows, but these birds are not closely related to the Old World sparrows which are in the family Passeridae. The family also includes the North American birds known as juncos and towhees.

Their habits are similar to those of finches, with which they sometimes used to be grouped. Older sources may place some emberizids in the Fringillidae, and the common names of some emberizids still refer to them as finches. Many emberizid species have distinctive head patterns.

As with several other passerine families the taxonomic treatment of this family's members is currently in a state of flux. Many genera in South and Central America are in fact more closely related to several different tanager clades,[1][2][3] and at least one tanager genus (Chlorospingus) may belong here in the Emberizidae.[4]

Contents

[edit] Systematics

[edit] The buntings

[edit] The American sparrows, including juncos and towhees

Chlorospingus seems to belong here too.

[edit] The brush-finches

[edit] The longspurs and arctic buntings

[edit] Genera belonging elsewhere

The rest of the traditional Emberizidae, listed below, are closer to various tanagers. For the largest part they are often known collectively as tanager-finches.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Burns, K. J., S. J. Hackett, and N. K. Klein, 2002. Phylogenetic relationships and morphological diversity in Darwin's finches and their relatives. Evolution 56 (6). 1240-1252.
  2. ^ Lougheed, S.C., J.R. Freeland, P. Handford & P.T. Boag. 2000. A molecular phylogeny of warbling-finches (Poospiza): paraphyly in a Neotropical emberizid genus. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 17: 367-378.
  3. ^ Burns, K. J., S. J. Hackett, and N. K. Klein. 2003. Phylogenetic relationships of Neotropical honeycreepers and the evolution of feeding morphology. J. Avian Biology 34: 360-370.
  4. ^ Yuri, T., and D. P. Mindell. 2002. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Fringillidae, "New World nine-primaried oscines" (Aves: Passeriformes). Mol. Phylogen. Evol. 23:229-243.
  5. ^ Klicka J, Zink RM, Winker K. 2003. Longspurs and snow buntings: phylogeny and biogeography of a high-latitude clade (Calcarius). Mol Phylogenet Evol. Feb;26(2):165-75.

[edit] External links