 Acanthisittidae

Acanthisittidae is the New Zealand wren family, a major branch of Passeriformes distinct from both Tyranni and the songbirds of Passeri. The rifleman is one representative. The familiar word “wren” is not by itself evidence that these birds belong with every other small bird given that common name.^[ref]

The rifleman searches trunks and branches for small invertebrates and makes short flights between feeding sites. Such observations describe how a living member uses its environment; they are a different kind of evidence from the DNA comparisons used to establish the family's evolutionary position.^[ref]

A useful classification test therefore asks two separate questions: does another bird share a similar body shape or feeding habit, and does it share the ancestry indicated by a phylogenetic tree? Similar ecological demands can produce similar appearances in different branches. Broad genomic sampling places Acanthisittidae in the passerine tree without defining the group merely by small size, a short tail or an English common name.