The "Corvida" were one of two "parvorders" contained within the suborder Passeri, as proposed in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy

Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy

The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a bird taxonomy proposed by Charles Sibley and Jon Edward Ahlquist. It is based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s....

. Standard taxonomic practice would place them at the rank of infraorder.

More recent research suggests that this is not a distinct clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 - a group of closest relatives and nothing else - but an evolutionary grade

Evolutionary grade

In alpha taxonomy, a grade refers to a taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity. The term was coined by British biologist Julian Huxley, to contrast with clade, a strictly phylogenetic unit.-Definition:...

 instead. As such, it is abandoned in modern treatments, being replaced by a number of superfamilies that are considered rather basal among the Passeri.

It was presumed that cooperative breeding - present in many or most members of the Maluridae

Maluridae

The Maluridae are a family of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens of the Northern Hemisphere...

, Meliphagidae, Artamidae

Artamidae

The family Artamidae gathers together 20 species of mostly crow-like birds native to Australasia and nearby areas.There are two subfamilies: Artaminae, the woodswallows, are sombre-coloured, soft-plumaged birds that have a brush-tipped tongue but seldom use it for gathering nectar. Instead, they...

 and Corvidae

Corvidae

Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs and nutcrackers. The common English names used are corvids or the crow family , and there are over 120 species...

, among others - is a common apomorphy of this group. But as evidenced by the updated phylogeny, this trait is rather the result of parallel evolution

Parallel evolution

Parallel evolution is the development of a similar trait in related, but distinct, species descending from the same ancestor, but from different clades.-Parallel vs...

, perhaps because the early Passeri had to compete against many ecologically similar birds (see also near passerine

Near passerine

Near passerine or higher land-bird assemblage are terms often given to arboreal birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines due to ecological similarities; the group corresponds to some extent with the Anomalogonatae of Garrod All near passerines are land birds...

).

Placement of "Corvida" families

This table lists, in taxonomic order, the families placed in "Corvida" by the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy in the left column. The right column contains details of their placement in modern systematics.

Corvoidea and Meliphagoidea

Meliphagoidea

Meliphagoidea is a superfamily of passerine birds. They contain a vast diversity of small to mid-sized songbirds widespread in the Austropacific region. The Australian Continent has the largest richness in genera and species.-Systematics:...

 are placed basally among the Passeri too. They are, however, groups large enough to considered superfamilies in their own right.

Family	Modern placement
Menuridae: lyrebirds	Basalmost Passeri, close to Atrichornithidae
Atrichornithidae: scrub-birds	Basalmost Passeri, close to Menuridae
Climacteridae: Australian treecreepers	Basal Passeri, close to Ptilonorhynchidae and Turnagridae
Maluridae Maluridae The Maluridae are a family of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens of the Northern Hemisphere... : fairy-wrens, emu-wren Emu-wren The emu-wrens are a genus of bird in the fairy-wren family Maluridae. They are found only in Australia where they inhabit scrub, heathland and grassland. They are small birds, 12–19 cm long with the tail accounting for over half of their length. The tail has only six feathers which are loose... s and grasswrens	Meliphagoidea. Nowadays several families.
Meliphagidae: honeyeaters and allies	Meliphagoidea
Pardalotidae: pardalote Pardalote Pardalotes or peep-wrens are a family, Pardalotidae, of very small, brightly coloured birds native to Australia, with short tails, strong legs, and stubby blunt beaks. This family is composed of four species in one genus, Pardalotus, and several subspecies. The name derives from a Greek word... s, scrubwrens, thornbills, and gerygone Gerygone Gerygone, the gerygones or peep-warblers, is a genus of bird in the Acanthizidae family. The genus ranges from South East Asia through New Guinea and Australia to New Zealand and the Chatham Islands... s	Meliphagoidea. Nowadays several families; Pardalotidae proper might belong in Meliphagidae
Petroicidae Petroicidae The bird family Petroicidae includes roughly 45 species in about 15 genera. All are endemic to Australasia: New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific Islands as far east as Samoa. For want of an accurate common name, the family is often called the Australasian robins. Within the... : Australian robins	Passeri incertae sedis Incertae sedis , is a term used to define a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Uncertainty at specific taxonomic levels is attributed by , , and similar terms.-Examples:*The fossil plant Paradinandra suecica could not be assigned to any...
Orthonychidae Orthonychidae The Orthonychidae is a family of birds with a single genus, Orthonyx, which comprises three species of passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea, the Logrunners and the Chowchilla. Some authorities consider the Australian family Cinclosomatidae to be part of the Orthonychidae... : logrunners	Passeri incertae sedis, close to Pomatostomidae
Pomatostomidae: Australasian babblers	Passeri incertae sedis, close to Orthonychidae
Cinclosomatidae Cinclosomatidae Cinclosomatidae is a family of passerine birds native to Australia and nearby areas. It has a complicated taxonomic history and different authors vary in which birds they include in the family. It includes at least the quail-thrushes , 5 species of ground-dwelling birds found in Australia and New... : whipbirds and allies	Corvoidea incertae sedis, relationships with Pachycephalidae unresolved
Neosittidae: sittellas	Corvoidea
Pachycephalidae Pachycephalidae The family Pachycephalidae, collectively the whistlers, includes the whistlers, shrike-thrushes, shrike-tits, pitohuis and Crested Bellbird, and is part of the ancient Australo-Papuan radiation of songbirds. Its members range from small to medium in size, and occupy most of Australasia... : whistlers, shrike-thrush Shrike-thrush Colluricincla is a bird genus in the family Colluricinclidae, which was formerly included in the Pachycephalidae. Its members are known as the shrikethrushes.It contains the following species:* Bower's Shrikethrush, Colluricincla boweri... es, pitohui Pitohui The pitohuis are a genus of birds endemic to New Guinea, belonging to the family Pachycephalidae.Currently six species are classified in the genus, though current molecular genetics research suggests that significant reclassification of the Pachycephalidae may be needed.-Species:* Variable... s and allies	Corvoidea incertae sedis, highly paraphyletic and relationships with Cinclosomatidae unresolved
Dicruridae: monarch flycatchers and allies	Corvoidea. Possibly paraphyletic
Campephagidae: cuckoo-shrikes and trillers (initially included in Laniidae)	Corvoidea
Oriolidae: orioles and figbirds	Corvoidea
Icteridae: American blackbirds/orioles, grackle Grackle Grackle can refer to any of eleven black passerine birds native to North and South America. All are members of the Icterid family but belong to multiple genera.* Genus Quiscalus** Boat-tailed Grackle, Quiscalus major... s and cowbird Cowbird Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus Molothrus in the family Icteridae. They are brood parasitic New World birds which are unrelated to the Old World cuckoos, one of which, the Common Cuckoo, is the best-known brood parasitic bird.... s	Passerida Passerida Passerida is under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, one of two "parvorders" contained within the suborder Passeri... : Passeroidea (the most "modern" main lineage of songbirds)
Artamidae Artamidae The family Artamidae gathers together 20 species of mostly crow-like birds native to Australasia and nearby areas.There are two subfamilies: Artaminae, the woodswallows, are sombre-coloured, soft-plumaged birds that have a brush-tipped tongue but seldom use it for gathering nectar. Instead, they... : woodswallow Woodswallow Woodswallows are soft-plumaged, somber-coloured passerine birds. There is a single genus, Artamus, The woodswallows are either treated as a subfamily, Artaminae in an expanded family Artamidae, which includes the butcherbirds and Australian Magpie, or as the only genus in that family... s, butcherbird Butcherbird Butcherbirds are magpie-like birds in the genus Cracticus. They are native to Australasia. Their closest relatives are the three species of currawong... s, currawong Currawong Currawongs are three species of medium-sized passerine birds belonging to the genus Strepera in the family Artamidae native to Australasia. These are the Grey Currawong , Pied Currawong , and Black Currawong . The common name comes from the call of the familiar Pied Currawong of eastern Australia... s and Australian Magpie Australian Magpie The Australian Magpie is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. A member of the Artamidae, it is closely related to the butcherbirds...	Corvoidea
Paradisaeidae: birds of paradise	Corvoidea
Corvidae Corvidae Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs and nutcrackers. The common English names used are corvids or the crow family , and there are over 120 species... : crow Crow Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several... s, raven Raven Raven is the common name given to several larger-bodied members of the genus Corvus—but in Europe and North America the Common Raven is normally implied... s, jay Jay The jays are several species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the crow family Corvidae. The names jay and magpie are somewhat interchangeable, and the evolutionary relationships are rather complex... s, etc.	Corvoidea
Corcoracidae Corcoracidae The Australian mudnesters are passerine family Struthideidae. The family is often commonly called Corcoracidae, however this is the junior synonym. It contains just two species in two genera, the White-winged Chough, Corcorax melanorhamphos, and the Apostlebird Struthidea cinerea... : White-winged Chough White-winged Chough The White-winged Chough is one of only two surviving members of the Australian mud-nest builders family, Corcoracidae, and is the only member of the genus Corcorax...  and Apostlebird Apostlebird The Apostlebird , also known as the Grey Jumper, is a quick-moving, gray or black bird about 13 inches long. It is a native to Australia where it roams woodlands, eating insects and seeds at, or near, ground level...	Corvoidea
Irenidae: fairy-bluebirds	Passeri incertae sedis; close to Passeroidea or Regulidae (kinglets)
Laniidae: shrikes	Corvoidea
Prionopidae: helmetshrikes (initially included in Laniidae)	Corvoidea
Malaconotidae: bush-shrikes and allies (initially included in Laniidae)	Corvoidea
Vireonidae: vireos	Corvoidea
Vangidae: vangas	Corvoidea
Ptilonorhynchidae: bowerbirds	Basal Passeri, close to Climacteridae and Turnagridae
Turnagridae Turnagridae The Turnagridae or piopio are a pair of passerine birds endemic to New Zealand, both of which are now considered extinct. Sometimes described as New Zealand Thrushes, the Piopio had only a coincidental, passing resemblance to the Thrush family. Piopio have been a longstanding taxonomic mystery... : piopios	Basal Passeri, close to Climacteridae and Ptilonorhynchidae
Callaeidae Callaeidae The small bird family Callaeidae is endemic to New Zealand. It contains three monotypic genera; of the three species in the family, only two survive and both of them, the Kokako and the Saddleback, are endangered species, threatened primarily by the predations of introduced mammalian species such... : New Zealand wattlebirds	Corvoidea?

In addition, the following families were not included in the "Corvida" although their closest relationships are with taxa included therein:

Family	Sibley-Ahlquist placement	Modern placement
Melanocharitidae Melanocharitidae The Melanocharitidae, the berrypeckers and longbills, is a small bird family restricted to the forests of New Guinea. The family contains ten species in four genera... : berrypeckers and longbills	Passerida	Corvoidea
Paramythiidae Paramythiidae The painted berrypeckers, Paramythiidae, are a very small bird family restricted to the mountain forests of New Guinea. The family comprises two species in two genera: the Tit Berrypecker and the Crested Berrypecker . These are colourful medium-sized birds which feed on fruit and some insects... : Tit Berrypecker and Crested Berrypecker	Passerida (included in Melanocharitidae)	Corvoidea
Platysteiridae: wattle-eyes	Passerida (included in Muscicapidae)	Corvoidea