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the largest order of birds and the dominant avian group on Earth today.
The passeriform birds are true perching birds, with four toes, three directed forward and one backward. Considered the most highly evolved of all birds, passerines have undergone an explosive evolutionary radiation in relatively recent geological time and now occur in abundance on all continents except Antarctica and on most oceanic islands.
Their rapid evolution and adaptation to virtually all terrestrial environments resulted in a large number of species, some 5,700, compared with only about 4,069 species of all other birds.
Thin, long-tailed birds with long claws on the hallux are birds of grasslands, pastures, and prairies.
Pipits have muted brown plumages, and wagtails are more dapper in their shades of gray, black, and white, often with a patch or wash of yellow. Longclaws combine the browns of one with the yellow (or even red) splashes of the other, and they bear an uncanny resemblance to the meadowlarks (Icteridae) of the New World, in appearance and in their melodious whistled songs. They all share the white outer tail feathers so characteristic of birds of open country. Although only the wagtails translate the meaning of their family’s Latin name (Motacilla means “moving tail”), most motacilids constantly pump their long tails as they walk.
Most bush warblers are secretive brown birds, adept at clambering through thick shrubbery, and, though vocal, some will not emerge even in response to playback. Although some genera forage actively in mid and upper levels of vegetation, most forage near the ground and many will not flush if alarmed, instead escaping by walking or scurrying away like a mouse. The tesias and stubtails are the most adroit at running through dense vegetation seemingly without disturbing it at all, and with their short tails, relatively long legs, and bounding gait they look like tiny pittas making their getaway.
