Order Passeriformes is the largest order of birds in the Class Aves. It contains over 140 families with 6.500 identified bird species world wide. They are also called perching birds. 3 toes point forward, 1 backwards called hallux and is long. This is called anisodactyl arrangement. This toe constellation makes it easier to hold on to a branch, twig, wire or blade of grass.

A further adaptation for perching is a tendon running on the rear side of the leg to the underside of the toes is attached to the muscle behind the Tibiotarsus (the large bone between femur and tarsometatarsus). This makes the feet curl automatically once the leg is bent and becomes stiff when landing on a branch. So they can sleep without falling down and using valuable energy. Bird foot

Passerines are mostly insectivorous or omnivorous meaning feeding on insects, small vertebrates, fruits, seeds and nectar. Omnivorous birds change to more carnivorous during breeding season. Plant material has less protein which is required for the chicks to grow fast and strong.

The name Passeriformes derives from Greek – Passer = Sparrow, Formis = shape. They originated in the Southern Hemisphere around 60 Mio years ago.

Most Passerines have 12 tail feathers. The eggs are coloured in most species. The number of eggs vary from species to species. The chicks are altricial meaning they hedge blind, without feathers and are helpless. They have reflexes to sense when a parent is landing and open their beak wide to get fed. The beak is fringed with yellow skin to signal the feeding parent where to place food.

In the infraorder Passerides is among others the superfamily Muscicapoidea with Old World Flycatchers, Thrushes, Starlings, and also the here introduced Irania, Wheatear, Rock-Chat, Nightingale, Sprosser which are in the family Muscicapidae, subfamily Saxicolinae.

Old world flycatchers – family Muscicapidae is a large family restricted to Europe, Africa and Asia. The name derives from Latin Musca = fly, capere = catch. There had been a lot of changes in this family and several genus from the family Turdidae where moved here. They are mainly insectivorous, small to medium and the nest is a cup. Colours are very variable.

The international Ornithologist Union recognises 357 species in 57 genera. We will go by subfamilies and describe them since the members of this family are very different birds.

To give you as actual information as possible we use Avibase, the books “Birds of Africa South of the Sahara”, “Birds of East Africa”, “Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania”. Then we put the most characteristic information to the photo.

You can also follow us on Facebook “Bird photography Safaris Kenya” and see the numerous species as well as the beautiful photos from Lorenzo Barelli. Click on the photo for larger view.

To create such extensive bird pages is only possible in collaboration with passionate and ambitious photographers allowing us to present their amazing photos. A big thank you to them. They have travelled far distances to photograph common and rare species. Their names are on the photos and in the description of the species. Those without name are from Elvira Wolfer.

The superfamily Muscicapoidea in the suborder Passerides contains Old World Flycatchers / Muscicapidae, Thrushes / Turdidae, Starlings / Sturnidae. The pages are split into families and since Muscicapidae is a large family into subfamilies.
Subfamily Saxicolinae contains Wheatears, Nightingale, Redstarts, Stonechats, Chats, Rock Thrushes, Cliff Chats, Ficedula Flycatchers.

The genera and the species in the subfamily Saxicolinae are very diverse. What they have in common is, that they are mainly insectivorous and many of them are migratory birds.

Irania has only 1 species

Luscinia is represented in EA with the migrants Nightingale and Sprosser

Ficedula  – Flycatcher is with 30 species the largest genus in this subfamily. Most occur in Asia, China, Himalaya region. 3 can be spotted in EA

Phoenicurus – Redstart has only 1 migrant to EA. The name refers to the red tail

Monticola – Rock-Thrush has species in Africa, Madagascar and Palearctic

Saxicola – Saxi = rocks, incola = residing – in EA we have 1 resident and 1 palearctic migrant

Thamnalaea – Mocking Cliff Chat, Mocking Chat, Cliff Chat is a small genus and only 1 is found in EA

Pinarochroa – Moorland Chat has 1 species Pinarochroa sordida. It is endemic in NE Africa

Myrmecocichla – are white-winged chats seen often on the ground or perching on a stone

Oenanthe – Wheatear are residents or migratory birds. Male and female Wheatear are in most species very different (sexual dimorphism)

Wheatear species are in this subfamily the birds you might find easiest