The family contains 43 species divided into eight genera: Image The monotypic genera Carpospiza and Hypocryptadius were not sampled. Phylogeny based on a study by Martin Päckert and colleagues published in 2021. A few further bird species are also called sparrows, such as the Java sparrow, an estrildid finch. It is a sparrow in name only, a relict of the old practice of calling more types of small birds "sparrows". The hedge sparrow or dunnock ( Prunella modularis) is similarly unrelated. New World sparrows are related to Old World buntings, and until 2017, were included in the Old World bunting family Emberizidae. Several species in this family are notable singers. ĭespite some resemblance such as the seed-eater's bill and frequently well-marked heads, New World sparrows are members of a different family, Passerellidae, with 29 genera recognised.
The 2008 Christidis and Boles taxonomic scheme lists the estrildid finches as the separate family Estrildidae, leaving just the true sparrows in Passeridae. They are broadly similar in structure and habits, but tend to be very colourful and vary greatly in their plumage. Like sparrows, the estrildid finches are small, gregarious and often colonial seed-eaters with short, thick, but pointed bills. Some authorities previously classified the related estrildid finches of the Old World tropics and Australasia as members of the Passeridae. Another family sparrows were classed with was the finches (Fringillidae). Suskin in the 1920s, placed the sparrows in the weaver family as the subfamily Passerinae, and tied them to Plocepasser. Many early classifications of the Old World sparrows placed them as close relatives of the weavers among the various families of small seed-eating birds, based on the similarity of their breeding behaviour, bill structure, and moult, among other characters. They therefore classify it as its own subfamily within Passeridae. According to a study of molecular and skeletal evidence by Jon Fjeldså and colleagues, the cinnamon ibon of the Philippines, previously considered to be a white-eye, is a sister taxon to the sparrows as defined by the HBW. Some classifications also include the sparrow-weavers ( Plocepasser) and several other African genera (otherwise classified among the weavers, Ploceidae) which are morphologically similar to Passer. These groups are similar to each other, and are each fairly homogeneous, especially Passer. Under the classification used in the Handbook of the Birds of the World ( HBW) main groupings of the sparrows are the true sparrows (genus Passer), the snowfinches (typically one genus, Montifringilla), and the rock sparrows ( Petronia and the pale rockfinch). The family Passeridae was introduced (as Passernia) by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815.
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