Mousebirds had a wider range in the Paleogene, with a widespread distribution in Europe and North America during the Paleocene.

Mousebirds are gregarious, again reinforcing the analogy with mice, and are found in bands of about 20 in lightly wooded country.

[6] The mousebirds could be considered "living fossils" as the six species extant today are merely the survivors of a lineage that was massively more diverse in the early Paleogene and Miocene.

[3] The latter were previously a separate order,[7] but eventually it was realized that they had come to group ancestral Coraciiformes, the actual sandcoleids and forms like Neanis together in a paraphyletic assemblage.

Sandcoleids in particular often preserve uncrushed seeds on their stomachs, while bearing talons similar to those of modern birds of prey.