The Emberizidae are a large family of passerine birds. They are seed-eating birds with a distinctively shaped bill.In Europe, most species are called buntings. In North America, most of the species in this family are known as (American) sparrows, but these birds are not closely related to the (Old World) sparrows, the family Passeridae. The family also includes the North American birds known as juncos and towhees.The Emberizidae family probably originated in South America and spread first into North America before crossing into eastern Asia and continuing to move west. This explains the comparative paucity of emberizid species in Europe and Africa when compared to the Americas.[citation needed]As with several other passerine families the taxonomic treatment of this family's members is currently in a state of flux. Many genera in South and Central America are in fact more closely related to several different tanager clades, and at least one tanager genus (Chlorospingus) may belong here in the Emberizidae.
Les Emberizidae (ou emberizidés en français) sont une famille de passereaux constituée de 30 genres et de 179 espèces.