Class AVES Order PASSERIFORMES Suborder OSCINES Family REGULIDAE (KINGLETS AND GOLDCRESTS) Very small birds with medium-long wings and tail, thin, straight and pointed bill, longish legs; general grey-green plumage coloration offset by pale wingbars, variably contrasting head markings, one species plainer-headed. 8–11 cm. Nearctic, Palearctic and, marginally, Oriental Regions. Coniferous forest, also mixed and deciduous […]
Category: family pages
Whydahs and Indigobirds
Class AVES Order PASSERIFORMES Suborder OSCINES Family VIDUIDAE (WHYDAHS AND INDIGOBIRDS) free text from the Handbook of the Birds of the World. Small passerines with short, stubby bill, breeding males of most species with extensive black in plumage, some also with greatly elongated central tail feathers, females and non-breeding males mostly brownish and streaked. 10-43 […]
Oxpeckers (Buphagidae)
Class AVES Order PASSERIFORMES Suborder OSCINES Family Buphagidae (OXPECKERS) free text from the Handbook of the Birds of the World. Medium-sized passerines with heavy, flattened bill; plumage coloration dull brownish and buff, with contrastingly bright eye wattle and bill. 20 cm. Africa. Savanna and farmland with large ungulates. 1 genus, 2 species, 3 taxa. No […]
Wrens (Troglodytidae)
Class AVES Order PASSERIFORMESSuborder OSCINES Family TROGLODYTIDAE (WRENS) free text from the Handbook of the Birds of the World. Very small to medium-sized, mostly insectivorous birds with finely pointed and often decurved bill, tail variously long and graduated to extremely short, one species with sturdy legs and bill; plumage colours mostly grey and brown, often […]
Orioles and Figbirds
Class AVES Order PASSERIFORMES Suborder OSCINES Family ORIOLIDAE (ORIOLES AND FIGBIRDS) free text Handbook of the Birds fo the World Medium-sized passerines with relatively large, long and pointed wings, short to medium-length tail; many species very colourful in yellow to golden and black, some more green. 17·5–32 cm. Old World. Woodland, forest and parklands. 2 […]
Woodcreepers (dendrocolaptidae)
Class AVES Order PASSERIFORMES Suborder TYRANNI Family DENDROCOLAPTIDAE (WOODCREEPERS) free text from the Handbook of the Birds of the World Small to medium-sized birds with broad rounded wings, long tail with rigid shafts, outer and middle toes united and much longer than inner toe, front claws strongly curved; most with brown plumage, a few grey […]
Honeyguides (Indicatoridae)
Class AVES Order PICIFORMES Family INDICATORIDAE (HONEYGUIDES) Free text form the Handbook of the Birds of the World Medium-small, rather nondescript arboreal birds with small head, short bill, nostrils often raised, and generally rather drab plumage with white outer-tail markings. 10-20 cm. Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. Forest and woodland, including streamside trees in near-desert; […]