The passerine birds are a large group of birds. It is commonly used to refer to perching birds and sometimes songbirds. Sparrows are an example of a passerine bird. So all sparrows are passerines but not all passerines are not sparrows. If you picked up any book about bird watching, you would find the term "passerine" in it.

I've never heard this name for a bird before. It is common to use the species of bird. Usually, it is done when the species of bird is relevant to the conversation. Perhaps you are talking about the kinds of birds that are at a location. Maybe the behaviour of the bird is important to the converstation (the seagulls at the beach) We would say bird if we do no know the species name, or if it cannot be identified, or if it doesn't matter (i.hit a bird with my car, by accident)