Nine-primaried oscine
The nine-primaried oscines are a group of songbird families from the parvorder Passerida in the infraorder Passerides. It is composed of the Fringillidae, Emberizidae, Passerellidae, Parulidae, Thraupidae, Cardinalidae, Icteridae and the monotypic Peucedramidae. The name of this group arises from the fact that all species within it have only nine easily visible primary feathers on each wing.
These families appear to form a clade; the status of the peculiar olive warbler and the distinct bananaquit need to be clarified. In most bird classifications, this group is placed at the end of the taxonomic sequence.
In the Sibley–Ahlquist classification, the nine-primaried oscines are treated as a single family. As noted above, this is not correct as they defined it, and in any case has not found widespread support. A more common scheme, often used by American ornithologists, is to treat most of these groups in a vastly expanded Emberizidae, but this is also likely to be overlumping.
This group is now generally known as the superfamily Emberizoidea.
