Birds of the World

Passerine Birds

Emberizidae : Old World Buntings

The publication of the Passerine volume of Birdlife International's "Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World" (del Hoya & Collar, 2016) has resulted in a major restructuring of the Emberizidae family in comparison to the taxonomy used in volume 16 of the Handbook of the Birds of the World. This formerly huge family has been streamlined in the new classification with many of its former members being moved to form new families (New World Sparrows (Passerellidae) and Longspurs (Calcariidae)) and all the remaining New World species not included in the new families have been reallocated to the Cardinals (Cardinalidae) or Tanagers (Thraupidae) so that the new Emberizidae solely contains the Old World Buntings.