oscine

/ˈɒ.saɪn/

Etymology

From Latin oscen (“songbird”).

adj

  1. Of or pertaining to songbirds (suborder Passeri).

noun

  1. Any bird of the suborder Passeri (the songbirds), which have better vocal control than other birds.“Because the oscines are the most speciose group of living birds, the use of learned vocalizations for mate competition and attraction has been hypothesized to have facilitated speciation (Marler and Tamura 1962; Slabbekoorn and Smith 2002; see Ricklefs [2003] for an alternative view).”