See text Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia.

Most are sensitive to cold and require warm, usually tropical, habitats, although a few, such as the eastern alpine mannikin, mountain firetail, red-browed finch, and the genus Stagonopleura, have adapted to the cooler climates of southern Australia and the highlands of New Guinea.

[1] The family Estrildidae was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte as "Estreldinae", a spelling variant of the subfamily name.

[2][3] In the list of world birds maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) the family contains 140 species divided into 41 genera.

[6] A genetic study of the Estrildidae by Urban Olsson and Per Alström published in 2020 identified 6 major clades.