Editing Parrotbill (section)

{{Short description|Group of birds}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Spot-breasted Parrotbill - Chiang Mai - Thailand S4E9657 (19364593139).jpg
| image_caption = [[Spot-breasted parrotbill]] (''Paradoxornis guttaticollis'')
| taxon = Paradoxornithidae
| authority = Horsfield & Moore, 1854
| subdivision_ranks = Genera
| subdivision = *''[[Myzornis]]''
*''[[Moupinia]]''
*''[[Lioparus]]''
*''[[Chrysomma]]''
*''[[Rhopophilus]]''
*''[[Fulvetta]]''
*''[[Chamaea]]''
*''[[Paradoxornis]]''
*''[[Suthora]]''
}}

The '''parrotbills''' are a family, '''Paradoxornithidae''', of [[passerine]] birds that are primarily native to [[Eastern Asia|East]], [[Southeast Asia|Southeast]] and [[South Asia]], with a single species in western [[North America]], though [[feral]] populations exist elsewhere. They are generally small birds that inhabit reedbeds, forests and similar [[habitat]]s. The traditional parrotbills feed mainly on seeds, e.g. of grasses, to which their robust bill, as the name implies, is well-[[adaptation (biology)|adapted]]. Members of the family are usually non-[[bird migration|migratory]].

The [[bearded reedling]] or "bearded tit", a [[Eurasia]]n species formerly placed here, is more [[insectivorous]] by comparison, especially in summer. It also strikingly differs in [[morphology (biology)|morphology]], such as its finer bill, and has again been moved to the [[monotypic]] family Panuridae. Conversely, a number of other mostly insectivorous species that traditionally were placed in [[Timaliidae]] (Old World babblers), for example the [[fulvetta]]s and [[fire-tailed myzornis]], along with the [[wrentit]] (a species with a conflicting taxonomic history), have been moved into Paradoxornithidae. [[DNA sequence]] data supports this.

Their general habitus and acrobatic habits resemble birds like the [[long-tailed tit]]s. Together with these and others they were at some time placed in the titmouse [[family (biology)|family]] [[Paridae]]. Later studies found no justification to presume a close relationship between all these birds, and consequently the parrotbills and bearded reedling were removed from the tits and chickadees and placed into a distinct family. As names like ''[[Paradoxornis paradoxus]]'' – "puzzling, paradox bird" – suggest, their true relationships were very unclear, although by the latter 20th century they were generally seen as close to Timaliidae (Old World babblers) and [[Sylviidae]] (Old World warblers).