Thenine-primaried oscines is a group of birdfamilies in thesuborderPasseri (oscines) of thePasseriformes. The composition of the group has changed since the term was introduced but is now considered to consist of seven major families—Fringillidae,Emberizidae,Cardinalidae,Thraupidae,Passerellidae,Parulidae andIcteridae—plus some small families. When Fringillidae is omitted the remaining six families are referred to as the "New World" nine-primaried oscines.
The name of this group arises from the fact that all species within it have only nine easily visibleprimary feathers on each wing (in reality most, if not all, also have a tenth primary, but it is greatly reduced and largely concealed).[1]
In 1874 the British naturalistAlfred Russel Wallace classified the passerines by the number of primary feathers and placed ten families in his nine-primaried group, theTanagroid Passeres:[2]
Six of Wallace's families are now included in the nine-primaried oscines: Mniotiltidae, Coerebidae, Drepanidae, Tanagridae, Fringillidae and Icteridae. The other four families are now known to be less closely related.[1]
The group without the Fringillidae, the New World nine-primaried oscines, is thesuperfamily Emberizoidea.[4] The superfamily comprises some 870 species or 8% of all birds. It is divided into 16 families:[5][6]
Phylogenetic relationships between the families of the nine-primaried oscines based on the analysis of Carl Oliveros and colleagues published in 2019.[5][a]
^A 2020 study by Heiner Kuhl and colleagues omittedRhodinocichlidae,Calyptophilidae andPhaenicophilidae but obtained a similar phylogeny for the remaining families.[7] Earlier studies using more limited DNA sequence data obtained different relationships between the families.[8][3]
^The familyTeretistridae (Cuban warblers) is tentatively placed here. The family was not included in the analysis published by Oliveros et al (2019).[5] Barker et al (2013) found that Teretistridae is closely related toZeledoniidae.[4]
^abHall, K.S.S. (2005). "Do nine-primaried passerines have nine or ten primary feathers? The evolution of a concept".Journal of Ornithology.146 (2):121–126.doi:10.1007/s10336-004-0070-5.
