Paradoxornithidae – Parrotbills & Allies

While the parrotbills have at times been recognised as a distinct family, they have also represented a taxonomic puzzle and treatment of the group has varied over time. The core group of parrotbills are a unique assemblage of songbirds with characteristically heavy, strongly arched bills that recalls the bills of parrots; however, the family also includes a variety of other species that have variously been included with other babbler and warbler radiations.

While mostly restricted to southern and eastern Asia, one species, the Wrentit Chamaea fasciata occurs in North America.

The Paradoxornithidae (Parrotbills & their Allies) are passerine birds that are primarily native to East, Southeast and South Asia, although feral populations exist elsewhere. They are generally small birds that inhabit reedbeds, forests and similar habitats. The traditional parrotbills feed mainly on seeds, e.g. of grasses, to which their robust bill, as the name implies, is well-adapted.

Ashy-throated Parrotbill Suthora alphonsiana – ©Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Members of the family are usually non-migratory.

The Bearded Reedling or ‘Bearded Tit’, a Eurasian species formerly placed with the parrotbills, is more insectivorous by comparison, especially in summer. It also strikingly differs in morphology, such as its finer bill, and has, once again, been moved to its own monotypic family Panuridae.

Golden Parrotbill Suthora verreauxi – ©Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Conversely, a number of other mostly insectivorous species that traditionally were placed in Timaliidae (Old World babblers), for example some of the fulvettas and the Fire-tailed Myzornis, along with the wrentit (a species with a conflicting taxonomic history), have been moved into Paradoxornithidae. Morphology and DNA sequence data supports this. (It is very confusing to birders that common names, such as fulvetta, warbler, tit and babbler are used for a wide range of species that belong to different families.)

Grey-hooded Parrotbill Suthora zappeyi – ©Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Their general habitus and acrobatic habits resemble birds like the long-tailed tits. Together with these and others they were at some time placed in the titmouse family Paridae. Later studies found no justification to presume a close relationship between all these birds, and consequently the parrotbills and bearded reedling were removed from the tits and chickadees and placed into a distinct family. As names like Paradoxornis paradoxus – puzzling, paradox bird – suggest, their true relationships were very unclear, although by the latter 20th century they were generally seen as close to Timaliidae (Old World babblers) and Sylviidae (Old World warblers), and, indeed, until recently they were assumed to be part of the latter family.