There are a few birds that could be described as looking like a sparrow with a long tail. Sparrows are small songbirds that are very common in many parts of the world. They typically have short tails in comparison to the overall length of their bodies. When people see a sparrow-like bird with a noticeably long tail, it often turns out to be one of the following species:
Long-tailed Tit
The long-tailed tit is a small songbird that is found throughout Europe, Asia, and parts of North Africa. As their name suggests, long-tailed tits have exceptionally long tails that can measure up to 9 inches, which is longer than their entire body length! This makes their tail appear massive in comparison to their tiny body size.
Long-tailed tits have soft and fuzzy plumage that is mostly gray, white and buff-colored. Their wings and face are marked with black and pink. Overall they are tiny, round birds that almost look like little puffballs with sticks growing out of them! When moving through trees and bushes, their elongated tails trail behind them like streamers.
Elf Owl
The elf owl is the world’s smallest owl, measuring around 5 inches tall. It lives in the southwestern United States, Mexico, and parts of Central America. Despite its tiny size, the elf owl has prominent ear tufts that give it a resemblance to sparrows. Its most notable feature is its relatively long tail that can measure over 3 inches. For an owl, this tail is quite long in proportion to its small body size.
Elf owls have gray and brown plumage with white spots on their wings and back. Their tails have black-and-white barring. During the day they sleep camouflaged against tree bark. At night they emerge to hunt insects, spiders, scorpions and small rodents. The elf owl has a surprisingly loud voice for its tiny size! Its call is a long, loud whistling noise.
Lilac-crowned Parrot
The lilac-crowned parrot is a medium-sized parrot found in western Mexico and the southwestern United States. Though it has parrot in its name, its appearance is more reminiscent of a songbird. The lilac-crowned parrot has a slender build and is around 11 inches long. But its tail makes up over half of that length! The parrot’s extremely long tail gives it a total length of 16-18 inches.
This parrot has mostly green plumage, with a prominent lilac/lavender crown of feathers on its head. Its tail and wing feathers feature yellow, red, and blue markings. The lilac-crowned parrot’s unique profile makes it look like a sparrow that sprouted a giant tail overnight! It can most often be seen flying between trees or perched sideways on branches while holding its lengthy tail out vertically for balance.
Pin-tailed Whydah
The pin-tailed whydah is a sparrow-sized songbird that lives in Africa. As the name alludes, it has an exceptionally long, pointed tail. During breeding season, the male’s tail grows up to 10 inches and makes up around 60% of the bird’s total length. This scythe-like tail is used to impress females during courtship displays.
Outside of breeding season, the males look similar to females with shorter tails. In general, pin-tailed whydahs have brown plumage with black or yellow accents. The males’ black breeding plumage has white speckles on the wings. Females have brown streaked plumage all year. The whydah’s tiny body paired with its dramatic elongated tail gives it a unique silhouette unlike any sparrow.
Tail Shapes and Functions
The examples above showcase some of the diversity seen in bird tail shapes and sizes. But why do some species evolve such long tail feathers while most birds have relatively short tails? Here are some reasons why elongated tails can be beneficial:
Balance and Agility
The incredibly long tail feathers of birds like the lilac-crowned parrot are useful as a counterbalance when perching and climbing through trees. The weight of the tail offsets the bird’s body and assists with agile movements like sudden takeoffs, hovering, and zig-zagging between branches. This improves their mobility in dense vegetation.
Communication
Long tails allow greater visual signaling and communication. Courtship displays like the ritual dances of male pin-tailed whydahs involve exaggerated movements of the extra-long tail. This visual communication signals desirability during breeding. Long tails can also make alarm calls more visible to flock members.
Steering and Maneuvering
The outer tail feathers of most birds are called rectrices. These feathers help birds steer and maneuver in flight. Having elongated rectrices increases control and stability, improving tight aerial turns and agility. This aids birds that forage while flying through dense habitats like forests.
Sexual Selection
Lengthy tail feathers are often a result of sexual selection – where exaggerated traits give males an advantage in attracting mates. This is clearly seen in species where males molt into specialized plumage during breeding. The dramatic tails must outcompete rival males and overcome female preference in order to be passed on genetically.
Predator Avoidance
Some theories suggest that long tails make it harder for predators to capture birds, or help distract attacking predators away from the bird’s body. This could explain why some prey species like motmots and pheasants have evolved extra-long tail feathers while birds of prey have short tails. However, there is still debate about this theory.
Cultural Signaling
In species where individuals communicate through learned vocalizations and movements, unique tail variations can signal membership to specific regional groups. This is well documented in some bird-of-paradise species that perform synchronized courtship dances. Local tail variations help establish shared group identity and improve coordination.
Examples of Long-Tailed Bird Species
While a long tail is very uncommon among songbirds like sparrows, numerous bird species spanning many families exhibit elongated tail feathers:
| Species | Tail Length | Key Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Pin-tailed whydah | Up to 10 in during breeding | – Found in sub-Saharan Africa |
| Resplendent quetzal | Up to 26 in in males | – Bright green and red plumage |
| Wilson’s bird-of-paradise | Up to 14 in during display | – Found in Indonesia and New Guinea |
| Scissor-tailed flycatcher | Up to 9 in | – Aerial insectivore found in the Americas |
| Indian peafowl | Up to 4 ft in males | – Iridescent blue and green plumage |
| Pin-tailed manakin | Up to 8 in in males | – Tiny yellow and black birds |
This table presents a sampling of birds from diverse families known for their elongated tail feathers. Tails range from slightly extended like the scissor-tailed flycatcher to super lengthy like the resplendent quetzal. While not a comprehensive list, it showcases the remarkable diversity of avian tail adaptations seen worldwide.
The Evolution of Avian Tail Length
The avian tail skeleton is composed of 5 to 9 caudal vertebrae fused into the pygostyle. Feathers attach to the pygostyle via specialized musculature. Most bird species have around 6 of these caudal vertebrae. So how do some end up with super long tails? There are a few ways tail feather length can evolve:
More Caudal Vertebrae
Some species like peacocks gain tail length by increasing the number of fused caudal vertebrae in the pygostyle. For example, peacock skeletons contain up to 20 caudal vertebrae! This elongation of the tail “handle” provides more surface area for flight feathers to attach.
Modified Feather Structure
Feathers themselves can evolve and lengthen. Tail and wing feathers have a central shaft called a rachis. In birds like the resplendent quetzal, the rachis of tail rectrices can exceed 1 ft long! Specialized follicle attachments allow quetzals to grow feathers longer than their entire body.
Novel Display Feathers
Males of the magnificent riflebird grow highly modified rectrices during breeding. Their central tail feathers lack a rachis altogether and transform into two thin, spiraling wires up to 8 inches long. These flexible appendages can be flared out and waved about dramatically.
Gradual Natural Selection
More modest tail extensions likely accumulate gradually as small changes accumulate over many generations. Natural selection and sexual selection periodically favor incrementally longer tails when they enhance signaling, balance, agility and control.
Mutations and Novelty
New mutations can occasionally trigger rapid trait changes in tail structure and patterning. If visually appealing, novel mutations may be strongly favored by female choice. For example, the sword-billed hummingbird evolved an unusually long bill due to a single mutation. Similar scenarios could rapidly lengthen tails.
Potential Costs of a Long Tail
While elongated tails offer many benefits, they also incur costs. Here are some potential disadvantages birds with long tails must mitigate:
Flight Impairment
Extremely long tails reduce aerial agility and slow escape takeoffs. Birds compensate by flying more slowly with exaggerated wingbeats. Some species only grow elaborate tails during breeding when they are not migrating long distances.
Energy Expenditure
Growing and carrying a heavy tail likely requires extra energy expenditure. Males may spend more time foraging. In species where males provision incubating females, long-tailed males may struggle to obtain enough food.
Predation Risk
A conspicuous, cumbersome tail likely increases predation risk. However, breeding often coincides with seasonal booms in food availability which may help offset this. Still, the mating displays of long-tailed birds require careful tradeoffs between attracting mates and avoiding predators.
Vulnerability to Damage
Trailing a giant tail makes birds more prone to feather abrasion and breakage. The wire-like tail feathers of birds-of-paradise can fracture if bent too far, possibly reducing mating opportunities. Other species may have specialized behaviors to prevent tail damage.
Developmental Tradeoffs
Resources devoted to growing showy plumage compete with critical needs like wing feather development. Young birds may face impaired flight ability until tail feathers fully grow in. Some species delay molting long tails until after migration to avoid these developmental tradeoffs.
Examples of Sparrows with Long Tails
True sparrows in the family Passerellidae almost universally have short tails. However, here are a few exceptions of sparrow relatives that exhibit elongated tail feathers:
Yellow-throated Leaflove
This small songbird from the forests of Central America belongs to the leaflove family, one branch over from true sparrows evolutionarily. Male yellow-throated leafloves develop tails up to 5 inches during breeding. Their bright yellow bib and supercharged tail make them look like a tiny hybrid between a sparrow and a scissor-tailed flycatcher.
African Wagtails
These slender songbirds forage by water and open grasslands. Their constant tail wagging gives them their name. Eurasian wagtails belong to the same family as sparrows, while African wagtails occupy a close sister lineage. Male Cape wagtail tails can extend over 4 inches beyond their body.
Red-whiskered Bulbul
This sparrow-sized songbird from Asia belongs to a family that occupies the same tree-of-life branch as sparrows. They have crests and long tails up to 4.5 inches. Introduced populations of red-whiskered bulbuls now brighten neighborhoods from Australia to Florida with their handsome tails.
Paradise Tanager
This vividly colored songbird fills a similar ecological niche to sparrows, but belongs to the tanager and honeycreeper family. Found in South America, paradise tanagers have typical short tails. But males that live on the slopes of the Andes evolve slightly elongated middle tail feathers topping 5 inches long.
Conclusion
When observing an unfamiliar silhouetted bird, judging tail length relative to body size provides an early clue to its identity. Sparrows almost universally have short, rounded tails. So any small songbird showing disproportionate tail extension likely belongs to an altogether different family.
Numerous species exhibit remarkable diversity in elongated tail shapes and decorations. These amazing adaptations fill many functions from communication, to in-flight control, to competition for mates. While a sparrow would likely struggle to fly with an giant tail, many birds manage to embody function and beauty by sporting the most spectacular tails seen in the avian world. Carefully balanced selection continues to hone elaborate designs, allowing charming long-tailed birds to brighten habitats worldwide.
