fowl and birds (it's for kids)

At first I thought of "fowl and passerines,"and I did find some examples (see below), BUT there are other types of birds as well--for example: raptors, shorebirds, alcids. In other words, passarines are birds, but they are a very small subset.

citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.387.6815...‎
by JL Goodson - ‎2012 - ‎Cited by 17 - ‎Related articles
Jan 13, 2012 - (**the largest of two avian clades that includes fowl and passerines**); and in fact, paternal care appears to be the ancestral condition for birds and ...

www.energy.ca.gov/.../HHSEGS_Append...‎
California Energy Commi...
**crowned night heron, and a variety of water fowl and passerines,** common raven, northwestern crow, desert tortoise, western fringed-toed lizard, Mojave ground ...



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Note added at 7 hrs (2014-02-08 01:29:01 GMT)
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I see that it's for kids, so "songbirds" might be more understandable, but then you're stuck with "songbirds and other birds."

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Note added at 7 hrs (2014-02-08 01:29:54 GMT)
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I insist that "other" is essential because we are talking about a subset of a larger category.

Embora "songbirds" = "pássaros canoros" seja uma designação genérica para "passarinhos" = "pássaros pequenos", já que entre estes encontram-se, também, as "perching birds" = "aves trepadoras", tipo "periquito", e outros passarinhos que não cantam, "songbird" é o que melhor descreve um passarinho para uma criança, que é o objetivo do projeto. No Brasil, quando se diz "passarinho", todos entendem que se está falando de "pequenas aves de canto". O mesmo ocorre em inglês, quando se diz "songbird". Todos entendem do que se trata, sem necessidade de outro complemento explicativo.

Se fosse um trabalho científico, entretanto, o autor teria de ser mais específico ao referir-se às aves em estudo, i.e., se trata-se de "wading birds" = "aves pernaltas", p.ex., "flamingo"; "water birds" = "aves aquáticas", p.ex., "cisne", e, além do mais, definir a que ordem pertencem [em "latim", como é de praxe].

O termo "fowl" -- solto --, embora, também, refira-se às aves em geral, traz primeiro à lembrança o aspecto culinário da ave, i.e., a sua carne, o que não se aplica ao caso. Alguém, fazendo uma descrição genérica de uma ave, poderia dizer "waterfowl", "wading fowl", etc.

Conquanto o autor faça uma ligeira referência ao termo "passeriform", "passerine" é um termo eminentemente científico", e soaria "grego" para um falante de inglês comum, principalmente para uma criança, à qual pretende-se explicar o que é um "passarinho".

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Note added at 10 hrs (2014-02-08 04:44:20 GMT)
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Para se fazer uma distinção, em inglês, entre pássaros de canto grandes e pequenos, diríamos "large songbirds" and "small songbirds", respectivamente, ou seja, "passarinhos grandes" e "passarinhos pequenos. Se não forem "de canto", pode-se, simplesmente, dizer "large perching birds" or "small perching birds", tentando dar a entender que "songbirds" estão excluídos dessa lista. That's to say, although all songbirds are perching birds, not all perching birds are songbirds.

Se não se quiser fazer distinções entre os diversos tipos de aves, pode-se, simplesmente, dizer: "large birds" or "small birds", o que incluiria todas as aves, pássaros e passarinhos, lembrando que esta não é uma definição científica.

Sutilezas das línguas.

Portuguese term (edited): aves | pássaros

"Remember, all songbirds are avians (members of the class Aves, birds of every feather!), but not all avians are songbirds..."

In English, a solution is needed that requires some creativity. One could say 'birds' vs 'songbirds', or 'birds as a whole' vs 'songbirds' but echo/repetition of 'birds', I think, undercuts the clarity of the distinction. I think 'avians', evoking as it does the Latin (and Spanish) 'aves', does a better job of making the distinction.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_eng... : "avian Syllabification: a·vi·an
Pronunciation: /ˈāvēən. adjective : of or relating to birds: ‘avian tuberculosis’. noun : a bird. Origin : late 19th century: from Latin avis 'bird' + -an."

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/avian : "avian (plural avians) 1.A bird. 2.A bird-like or flying creature."

tolweb.org/Passeriformes‎ : Tree of Life Web Project : "The Passeriformes is the largest and most diverse commonly recognized ... commonly known as songbirds (oscine Passerines or Passeri)..."

* * *

dq.sf.org.nz/beastiary/avians.html‎ : "Common avians include buzzards, eagles, goshawks, owls. BUZZARD. Natural Habitat: Plains, waste..."

michaeldanielho.com/hummingbird-photography-tips.html‎ : "Hummingbirds belong to the family of birds known as Trochilidae. They are among the smallest avians, most species measure about 3 to 5 inches in length and ...

www.nomadart.com.au/?p=5791‎ : "Tales of the Avians is a visual carnival of warm-blooded, egg-laying, vertebrate animals with feathered wings, three primary and one accessory toe, keen sight, ...The collection includes etchings and screenprints created by a group of eclectic artists linked by a common interest in birds and a unique creative vision."

articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com › Collections‎ : "Greater Noida aquarium to display exotic marine species .... captive breeding of rare and endangered species of the avians for their protection, ... We can do the identification of bird's sex by extracting DNA from just a feather or a drop of blood ..."

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. A notable feature of passerines is the arrangement of their toes (three pointing forward and one back) which facilitates perching. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders, with over 5,000 identified species.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passerine
http://www.mdahlem.net/birds/passer.php - showing examples of both types

The Passerines, or perching birds, is the biggest order of birds - over half of the world's bird species are passerines. The group includes flycatchers, birds of paradise, crows and all the familiar garden birds of Britain. Passerine birds have three forward pointing toes and one backwards pointing one.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Passerine

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Note added at 2 days17 hrs (2014-02-10 10:55:46 GMT)
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from the mdahlem link:
Example passerine foothold: Pied Currawong
- three toes forward, one backward
Example non-passerine foothold: Budgerigar
- two toes forward, two backward