Parrotbills and Allies

The Paradoxornithidae are a family of passerine birds that are primarily native to East, Southeast and South Asia, with a single species in western North America, though 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. Members of the family are usually non-migratory.

The bearded reedling or "bearded tit", a Eurasian species formerly placed here, is more insectivorous by comparison, especially in summer. It also strikingly differs in morphology, such as its finer bill, and has again been moved to the monotypic family Panuridae. Conversely, a number of other mostly insectivorous species that traditionally were placed in Timaliidae (Old World babblers), for example the fulvettas and fire-tailed myzornis, along with the wrentit (a species with a conflicting taxonomic history), have been moved into Paradoxornithidae. DNA sequence data supports this.