The Tit's F[aegithalos-caudatus-taxonomy.md](aegithalos-caudatus-taxonomy.md)amily
The family is a taxonomical category below the order and above the genus—only two levels above the species. Birds in the same family are usually very visually similar on several levels, such as their body shape, their bill or their behavior.
A male european stonechat macho.
A female black redstart.
The stonechat and redstart both belong to the Muscicapidae family, as well the european robin. These species have very similar silhouettes: the same body shape, the same flat and fine beak and the same thin legs.
A bird family often has a shared common name for all or most of the species in it. For instance, birds in the Phalacrocoracidae family are cormorants; birds in the Turdidae family are thrushes; and so on.
For these two reasons, one would assume that the long-tailed tit is in the Paridae family:
- It’s similar to other birds in the family, sharing the general body shape, the beak shape and their acrobatic nature.
- Its common name is tit, much like other birds in the family.
Long-tailed tit
Blue tit
The blue tit and long-tailed tit are quite similar, especially their beaks.
Nonetheless, sometimes looks can be rather deceptive, and this is one of such cases. The long-tailed tit is part of the Aegithalidae family, with 13 species worldwide. This isn’t arbitrary, as long-tailed tits are ultimately quite different from birds in the Paridae family. For instance, other tits don’t form the same groups long-tailed tits do nor do they build the same nests. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, phylogenetic studies have found that Aegithalidae is more closely related to families such as Phylloscopidae or Cettiidae than to ParidaeEarth history and the passerine superradiation.