passerine

American  

[pas-er-in, -uh-rahyn, -uh-reen] / ˈpæs ər ɪn, -əˌraɪn, -əˌrin /

adjective

1. of, belonging, or pertaining to the order Passeriformes, comprising more than half of all birds and typically having the feet adapted for perching.

2. oscine.

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noun

1. any bird of the order Passeriformes.

passerine British  

/ ˈpæsəˌraɪn, -ˌriːn /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or belonging to the Passeriformes, an order of birds characterized by the perching habit: includes the larks, finches, crows, thrushes, starlings, etc

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noun

1. any bird belonging to the order Passeriformes

passerine Scientific  

/ păs′ə-rīn′ /

1. Belonging to the avian order Passeriformes, which includes the perching birds. Passerine birds make up more than half of all living birds. They are of small to medium size, have three toes pointing forward and one pointing back, and are often brightly colored. Larks, swallows, jays, crows, wrens, thrushes, cardinals, finches, sparrows, and blackbirds are all passerine birds.

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Other Word Forms

• nonpasserine
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of passerine

1770–80; < Latin passerīnus of a sparrow, equivalent to passer sparrow + -īnus -ine ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

passerine

Using this approach, the researchers estimated how passerine body shapes changed over roughly 45 million years of evolution.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 2026

Ms McRobert said the warbler, one of the passerine order, or perching birds, was only able to make the journey from west to east, not in the other direction.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2022

In 2012, evolutionary biologist Catherine Sheard started an ambitious Ph.D. project: measuring the shape of every kind of passerine, or perching bird, in the world.

From Science Magazine ● Mar. 16, 2022

There is at least one exception to the smaller-is-sweeter rule: Australia's pheasant-size superb lyrebird, a type of passerine, is "undoubtedly the bird with the world's most complex song," Remsen says by email.

From National Geographic ● Jul. 4, 2015

The thick-heads were by far the most common passerine bird in the relict forest on Siamil Island, being quite tame and easily approached.

From Birds from North Borneo University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Volume 17, No. 8, pp. 377-433, October 27, 1966 by Max C. Thompson

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