The family name (as the subfamily Macrospheninae) was introduced by the German ornithologist Hans Wolters in 1983 but was not formally defined until 2012.

[6] The genus level phylogeny shown below is based on a genetic study by Silke Fregin and collaborators that was published in 2012.

These range from primary rainforest to forest edge and open woodland habitats for the longbills, wooded savanna to arid scrubland and bushland in the crombecs, rocky arid scree areas and grassland for the rockrunner, and grassland for the moustached grass warbler and Cape grassbird.

The family is overwhelmingly non-migratory, although the moustached grass warbler and the northern crombec both make some localised movements in West Africa related to the rainy season.

The longbills and crombecs feed in the canopy and in bushes, either as singles or pairs and sometimes in small groups, whereas the other species are more terrestrial in their habits.