Certhioidea

Certhoidea Temporal range: Miocene–Holocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Marsh wren (Cisthorus palustris)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Parvorder:	Muscicapida
Superfamily:	Certhioidea
Families
Tichodromidae Sittidae Salpornithidae Certhiidae Troglodytidae Polioptilidae

Certhioidea is a superfamily belonging to the infraorder Passerida containing wrens and their allies. It was proposed in 2004 by Cracraft and colleagues to house a clade of four families that were removed from the superfamily Sylvioidea.^[1][2]

Classification

In 2019 Carl Oliveros and colleagues published a large molecular phylogenetic study of the passerines that included species from each of the six families that make up the superfamily Certhioidea.^[3] The spotted creepers (genus Salpornis) have sometimes been placed in the family Certhiidae. Edward Dickinson and Leslie Christidis in the fourth edition of the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World placed them in their own family Salpornithidae.^[4]

Certhioidea Tichodromidae: wallcreeper – 1 species Sittidae: nuthatches – 29 species Salpornithidae: spotted creepers – 2 species Certhiidae: treecreepers – 9 species Polioptilidae: gnatcatchers – 22 species Troglodytidae: wrens – 96 species

Relationships among families in the superfamily Certhioidea.[3][5]

References

1. Cracraft, J.; Barker, F.K.; Braun, M.; Harshman, J.; Dyke, G.J.; Feinstein, J.; Stanley, S.; Cibois, A.; Schikler, P; Beresford, P.; García-Moreno, J.; Sorenson, M.P.; Yuri, T.; Mindell, D.P. (2004). "Phylogenetic relationships among modern birds (Neornithes)". In Cracraft, J.; Donoghue, M.J. (eds.). Assembling the Tree of Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517234-8.
2. "Certhioidea". tolweb.org.
3. Oliveros, C.H.; et al. (2019). "Earth history and the passerine superradiation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. 116 (16): 7916–7925. Bibcode:2019PNAS..116.7916O. doi:10.1073/pnas.1813206116. PMC 6475423. PMID 30936315.
4. Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-9568611-2-2.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela C. (eds.). "Nuthatches, Wallcreeper, treecreepers, spotted creepers, mockingbirds, starlings, oxpeckers". IOC World Bird List. 15.1. Retrieved 5 March 2025.