The ground jays or ground choughs belong to a distinct group of the passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. 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, it has roughly...

 order of birds in the genus Podoces of the 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...

 family 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...

. They inhabit high altitude semi-desert areas from central Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 to Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

.

Ground jays show adaptations to ground living such as long, strong legs adapted to fast running and the ability to leap and bound onto boulders and rocks with great agility. Their long, curved thick bills are adapted for digging and probing.

While capable of flight

Bird flight

Flight is the main mode of locomotion used by most of the world's bird species. Flight assists birds while feeding, breeding and avoiding predators....

 (which they do infrequently and relatively weakly), they prefer running, and will readily perch on trees and bushes also.

Species list

• Henderson's Ground Jay (Podoces hendersoni)
• Biddulph's Ground Jay (Podoces biddulphi)
• Persian Ground Jay (Podoces pleskei)
• Pander's Ground Jay (Podoces panderi)

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Hume's Ground Tit

Hume's Ground Tit

The Tibetan Ground-tit or Hume's Ground-tit is a lark-like bird which lives to the north of the Himalayas. It is also known simply as Ground Tit or simply as Hume's Groundpecker. It was formerly thought to belong to the family Corvidae which includes the crows and jays and was called as the Hume's...

 (Pseudopodoces humilis), previously Hume's Ground Jay, has changed its placement within the Passeriformes recently because of molecular and osteological testing. It has now been placed into the Paridae.