Phylogenetic placement: Passeri: Passerides: Sylviida

Distribution: worldwide, except Antarctica

Number of extant genera: 19-23

Number of extant species: ~98

References

Alström P, Olsson U, and Lei F (2013), A review of the recent advances in the systematics of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea. Avian. Res. 4, 99-131. (free pdf)

Barker FK, Barrowclough GF, and Groth JG (2002) A phylogenetic hypothesis for passerine birds: taxonomic and biogeographic implications of an analysis of nuclear DNA sequence data, Proc. R. Soc. B 269, 295-308 (abstract)

Barker FK, Cibois A, Schikler P, Feinstein J, and Cracraft J (2004) Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U.S.A. 101, 11040-45. (pdf) 

Barrow LN, Dalton DL, Kotze A, and Evans SW (2016), Geographically widespread mitochondrial lineages of the African saw-wings inconsistent with species boundaries, Ostrich 87, 271-275. (abstract)

Carter JK, Innes P, Goebl AM, Johnson B, Gebert M, Attia Z, Gabani Z, Li R, Melie T, Dart C, Mares A, Greidanus C, Paterson J, Wall B, Cortese G, Thirouin K, Glime G, Rutten J, Poyd C, Post E, Elhadi AA, Feldmann K, Danz A, Blanchard T, Amato S, Reinert S, Pogoda CS, Scordato ESC, Hund AK, Safran RJ, and Kane NC (2020), Complete mitochondrial genomes provide current refined phylogenomic hypotheses for relationships among ten Hirundo species, Mitochondrial DNA B 5, 2881-85. (pdf) 

Cerasale DJ, Dor R, Winkler DW, and Lovette IJ (2012), Phylogeny of the Tachycineta genus of New World swallows: Insights from complete mitochondrial genomes, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 63, 64-71. (abstract) 

da Silva TN, Fernando SW, Robbins MB, Cooper JC, Folsom EB, and Peterson AT (2018), Recognition of a new generic-level swallow taxon from central Africa, J. Avian Biol. 49, e:01698. (free reading)

Dor R, Safran RJ, Sheldon FH, Winkler DW, and  Lovette IJ (2010), Phylogeny of the genus Hirundo and the Barn Swallow subspecies complex, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 56, 409-418. (abstract) 

Dor R, Carling MD, Lovette LJ, Sheldon FH, and Winkler DW (2012), Species tree for the tree swallows (Genus Tachycineta): An alternative phylogenetic hypothesis to the mitochondrial gene tree, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 65, 317-322. (pdf)

Ericson PGP, Klopfstein S, Irestedt M, Nguyen JMT, and Nylander JAA (2014), Dating the diversification of the major lineages of Passeriformes (Aves), BMC Ecol. Evol. 14, e:8. (free pdf) 

Huang J, Yuan B, Zhong H, Shi X, Yang B, Peng J, and Yang C (2022), The complete mitochondrial genome of the Riparia riparia (Passeriformes: Hirundinidae), Mitochondrial DNA B 7, 1191-93. (pdf)

Kuhl H, Frankl-Vilches C, Bakker A, Mayr G, Nikolaus G, Boerno ST, Klages S, Timmermann B, and Gahr M (2021), An unbiased molecular approach using 3'UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life, Mol. Biol. Evol. 38, 108-127. (pdf)  

Moyle RG, Slikas B, Whittingham LA, Winkler DW, and Sheldon FH (2008), DNA sequence assessment of phylogenetic relationships  among New World martins (Hirundinidae: Progne), Wilson J. Ornithol. 120, 683-691. (abstract)

Oliveros CH, Field DJ, Ksepka DT, Barker KF, Aleixo A, Andersen MJ, Alström P, Benz BW, Braun EL, Braun MJ, Bravo GA, Brumfield RT, Chesser RT,  Claramunt S, Cracraft J, Cuervo AM, Derryberry EP, Glenn TC, Harvey MG, Hosner PA, Joseph L, Kimball RT, Mack AL, Miskelly CM, Peterson AT, Robbins MB, Sheldon FH, Silveira LF, Smith BT, White ND, Moyle RG, and Faircloth BC (2019), Earth history and the passerine superradiation, PNAS 116, 7915-25. (pdf)  

Pavlova A, Zink RM, Drovetsky SV, and Rohwer S (2008), Pleistocene evolution of closely related sand martins Riparia riparia and R. diluta, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 48, 61-73. (abstract)

Schield DR, Brown CE, Shakya SB, Calabrese GM, Safran RJ, and Sheldon FH (2024), Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the swallow family (Hirundinidae) inferred from comparisons of thousands of UCE loci, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 197, e:108111. (abstract) (free pdf)

Sheldon FH, Whittingham LA, Moyle RG, Slikas B, and Winkler DW (2005), Phylogeny of swallows (Aves: Hirundinidae) estimated from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 35, 254-270. (abstract)

Stiller J, Feng S, Chowdhury AA, Rivas-González I, Duchêne DA, Fang Q, Deng Y, Kozlov A, Stamatakis A, Claramunt S, Nguyen JMT, Ho SYW, Faircloth BC, Haag J, Houde P, Cracraft J, Balaban M, Mai U, Chen G, Gao R, Zhou C, Xie Y, Huang Z, Cao Z, Yan Z, Ogilvie HA, Nakhleh L, Lindow B, Morel B, Fjeldså J, Hosner PA, da Fonseca RR, Petersen B, Tobias JA, Székely T, Kennedy JD, Reeve AH, Liker A, Stervander M, Antunes A, Tietze DT, Bertelsen M, Lei F, Rahbek C, Graves GR, Schierup MH, Warnow T, Braun EL, Gilbert MTP, Jarvis ED, Mirarab S, and Zhang G (2024), Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes, Nature (preview pdf)