EMBERIZIDAE

songbird family in the classification preferred by some authorities, absorbing some groups otherwise placed in the Fringillidae (q.v.), order Passeriformes. The family Emberizidae includes some species of buntings, finches, grosbeaks, and sparrows and all juncos; it is sometimes considered to include the tanagers and even the wood warblers. With these groups, the family numbers nearly 900 species. In the narrower sense the Emberizidae includes about 400 species, most of which are small seedeaters with conical bills. Except for a few species in the Old World, the family is confined to the New World. See also bananaquit; honeycreeper; swallow-tanager; tanager; towhee. For Sporophilia, see seedeater.