Colonizing lineages among the oscines have distinctive morphology associated with dispersal ability. Cumulative distribution of scores on canonical discriminant axis 1 among species of basal oscines (bOSC, n = 38), transitional oscines (tOSC, n = 37), and core Corvoidea (n = 83) belonging to each of the five distribution groups: endemic to Australia (including New Zealand), endemic to Australia plus New Guinea (Aus/NG), endemic to New Guinea (NG), widely distributed across Australasia to southeast Asia or Africa (Colonists), and species presently occurring only outside of the Australo-Papuan region (External).