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Finches
Finches text
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide native distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes the canaries, siskins, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias, as well as the morphologically divergent Hawaiian honeycreepers.
Sparrows
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
Although they share the name sparrow, New World sparrows are more closely related to Old World buntings than they are to the Old World sparrows (family Passeridae).[1][2] New World sparrows are also similar in both appearance and habit to finches, with which they sometimes used to be classified.
Wrens
wren text 1
The English name "wren" derives from Middle English: wrenne and Old English: wrænna, attested (as wernnaa) very early, in an eighth-century gloss. It is cognate to Old High German: wrendo, wrendilo, and Icelandic: rindill (the latter two including an additional diminutive -ilan suffix). The Icelandic name is attested in Old Icelandic (Eddaic) as rindilþvari. This points to a Common Germanic name wrandjan-, but the further etymology of the name is unknown.[2]
Wren text 2
The wren was also known as the kuningilin ('kinglet') in Old High German, a name associated with the fable of the election of the "king of birds". The bird that could fly to the highest altitude would be made king. The eagle outflew all other birds, but he was beaten by a small bird that had hidden in his plumage. This fable was already known to Aristotle (Historia Animalium 9.11)[3] and Pliny (Natural History 10.95),[4][5] and was taken up by medieval authors such as Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, but it most likely originally concerned kinglets (Regulus, such as the goldcrest) and was apparently motivated by the yellow "crown" sported by these birds (a point noted already by Ludwig Uhland).[6] The confusion stemmed in part from the similarity and consequent interchangeability of the Ancient Greek words for the wren (βασιλεύς basileus, 'king')[7] and the crest (βασιλίσκος basiliskos, 'kinglet'),[8][9] and the legend's reference to the "smallest of birds" becoming king likely led the title to be transferred to the equally tiny wren.[6][10] In modern German, the name of the bird is Zaunkönig ('king of the fence (or hedge)') and in Dutch, the name is winterkoning ('king of winter').[citation needed]
Finches
Finches text
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide native distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes the canaries, siskins, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias, as well as the morphologically divergent Hawaiian honeycreepers.
Sparrows
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
Although they share the name sparrow, New World sparrows are more closely related to Old World buntings than they are to the Old World sparrows (family Passeridae).[1][2] New World sparrows are also similar in both appearance and habit to finches, with which they sometimes used to be classified.
Wrens
wren text 1
The English name "wren" derives from Middle English: wrenne and Old English: wrænna, attested (as wernnaa) very early, in an eighth-century gloss. It is cognate to Old High German: wrendo, wrendilo, and Icelandic: rindill (the latter two including an additional diminutive -ilan suffix). The Icelandic name is attested in Old Icelandic (Eddaic) as rindilþvari. This points to a Common Germanic name wrandjan-, but the further etymology of the name is unknown.[2]
Wren text 2
The wren was also known as the kuningilin ('kinglet') in Old High German, a name associated with the fable of the election of the "king of birds". The bird that could fly to the highest altitude would be made king. The eagle outflew all other birds, but he was beaten by a small bird that had hidden in his plumage. This fable was already known to Aristotle (Historia Animalium 9.11)[3] and Pliny (Natural History 10.95),[4][5] and was taken up by medieval authors such as Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, but it most likely originally concerned kinglets (Regulus, such as the goldcrest) and was apparently motivated by the yellow "crown" sported by these birds (a point noted already by Ludwig Uhland).[6] The confusion stemmed in part from the similarity and consequent interchangeability of the Ancient Greek words for the wren (βασιλεύς basileus, 'king')[7] and the crest (βασιλίσκος basiliskos, 'kinglet'),[8][9] and the legend's reference to the "smallest of birds" becoming king likely led the title to be transferred to the equally tiny wren.[6][10] In modern German, the name of the bird is Zaunkönig ('king of the fence (or hedge)') and in Dutch, the name is winterkoning ('king of winter').[citation needed]