Vorstman's Guide to the Birds of North America

The tree descends layer by layer: from the main branches of the bird family tree through ever smaller clades to the orders, families and species. Every clade has a name — some familiar, others named only in 2024. Where the genetic support is weak, that is stated.

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• Birds Aves

  All living birds together make up one group; the ostrich and the house sparrow mark its two outermost branches. Feathers, a wishbone and air sacs in the bones are characteristic of the whole group and are found in related dinosaurs as well. 904 species

  • Birds with a mobile palate Neognathae

    In these birds the palate bones are loose enough to hinge, so the upper bill can move against the skull. That turns the beak into a finely adjustable tool - tweezers, chisel, sieve or nutcracker - and every bird on this site belongs here. 904 species

    • Fowl Galloanserae

      Ducks, geese and swans are more closely related to gamebirds than to any other bird; they have nothing to do with the seabirds. Both groups lay large clutches, and their chicks walk and feed themselves almost as soon as they hatch - a design the two groups share. 96 species

      • WaterfowlAnseriformes66 species
        Ducks, swans and geese Anatidae 66
      • GamebirdsGalliformes30 species
        Guans, curassows and chachalacas Cracidae 1New World quail Odontophoridae 6Partridges, pheasants, grouse and allies Phasianidae 23

    • All other modern birds Neoaves

      Nineteen out of every twenty bird species belong here. Its deepest splits lie so close together that even complete genomes can barely separate them, which leaves the arrangement of the main branches unsettled to this day. 808 species

      • Flamingos and grebes Mirandornithes

        Flamingos and grebes look nothing alike and yet are each other's closest relatives - hence the name, the wonderful birds. They share a feather louse of their own, lobed rather than fully webbed toes and the habit of nesting on floating or heaped-up mounds; in the tree of Stiller et al. 2024 they are the very first branch of Neoaves. 8 species

        • FlamingosPhoenicopteriformes1 species
          Flamingos Phoenicopteridae 1
        • GrebesPodicipediformes7 species
          Grebes Podicipedidae 7

      • Doves, cuckoos and bustards Columbaves

        Pigeons, sandgrouse, mesites, cuckoos, turacos and bustards in one branch - a company nobody would assemble on looks. The group turns up in some genome studies and not in others, which keeps it one of the shakier main branches of the tree. 22 species

        • Cuckoos, bustards and turacos Otidimorphae

          Heavy steppe walkers, fruit-eating tree birds and brood parasites in one branch - what they share is not obvious at a glance. Their internal order shifts from study to study; Stiller et al. 2024 put the bustards with the cuckoos and leave the turacos outside, while acknowledging that other analyses arrange them differently. 7 species

          • CuckoosCuculiformes7 species
            Cuckoos Cuculidae 7

        • Doves and sandgrouse Columbimorphae

          Pigeons, sandgrouse and the Madagascan mesites. Pigeons feed their young on crop milk, while male sandgrouse carry water home from the desert soaked into their belly feathers and let the chicks drink it out - two very different answers to the same problem of drought. 15 species

          • SandgrousePterocliformes1 species
            Sandgrouse Pteroclidae 1
          • Pigeons and dovesColumbiformes14 species
            Doves and pigeons Columbidae 14

      • Birds of the elements Elementaves

        A branch named in 2024 that gathers the hoatzin, cranes and rails, waders and gulls, nightjars and swifts, tropicbirds and all the true waterbirds; the name points to the classical elements earth, water, air and fire. It is also the least firmly supported of the four main branches: it emerges from the analyses of non-coding DNA, but not from the exons, the introns or the concatenated analysis. 285 species

        • Cranes and shorebirds Gruimorphae

          Cranes and rails turn out to be the closest relatives of the waders, gulls and auks - a clear shift away from older trees, in which the waders were placed with the waterbirds. Both groups are inhabitants of open, wet ground that make their living on foot. 162 species

          • Cranes, rails and alliesGruiformes16 species
            Limpkin Aramidae 1Cranes Gruidae 3Rails, gallinules and coots Rallidae 12
          • Waders, gulls and ternsCharadriiformes146 species
            ▸ Plovers and allies Charadrii

            Stilts and avocets Recurvirostridae 2Oystercatchers Haematopodidae 2Plovers and lapwings Charadriidae 13

            ▸ Sandpipers and snipes Scolopaci

            Jacanas Jacanidae 1Sandpipers and allies Scolopacidae 54

            ▸ Gulls, terns and auks Lari

            Jaegers and skuas Stercorariidae 5Auks, puffins and murres Alcidae 21Skimmers, noddies, terns and gulls Laridae 48

        • Tropicbirds and waterbirds Phaethoquornithes

          The tropicbirds with the sunbittern and kagu, together with all the true water and marsh birds. Here runs the line between the birds that take their food from the water and the landbirds; ducks, grebes, gulls and waders emphatically do not belong, however tied to water they are. 90 species

          • Tropicbirds and sunbitterns Phaethontimorphae

            Three very different leftovers: the tropicbirds of the open ocean, the sunbittern of the Amazon forest and the kagu of New Caledonia. Where this branch belongs is unsettled - coding DNA places it with the landbirds, non-coding DNA with the waterbirds, and both with full statistical support. 3 species

            • TropicbirdsPhaethontiformes3 species
              Tropicbirds Phaethontidae 3

          • Waterbirds Aequornithes

            Divers, penguins, albatrosses and petrels, storks, gannets, cormorants, pelicans, herons and ibises: the birds that really take their food from the water. They all swim, dive or wade, but the way they do it - chasing underwater, plunging from a height, or waiting motionless - differs completely from family to family. 87 species

            • LoonsGaviiformes5 species
              Loons Gaviidae 5
            • TubenosesProcellariiformes45 species
              Albatrosses Diomedeidae 4Southern storm petrels Oceanitidae 2Northern storm petrels Hydrobatidae 10Petrels, shearwaters and diving petrels Procellariidae 29
            • StorksCiconiiformes1 species
              Storks Ciconiidae 1
            • Gannets and cormorantsSuliformes16 species
              Frigatebirds Fregatidae 2Boobies and gannets Sulidae 7Anhinga and darters Anhingidae 1Cormorants and shags Phalacrocoracidae 6
            • Pelicans, herons and ibisesPelecaniformes20 species
              Ibises and spoonbills Threskiornithidae 4Pelicans Pelecanidae 2Herons, egrets and bitterns Ardeidae 14

        • Nightjars and swifts Strisores

          Nightjars, the oilbird, potoos, owlet-nightjars, swifts and hummingbirds: from slow twilight hunters with an enormous gaping mouth to the most extreme fliers alive. The old nightjar order turned out to contain the swifts and hummingbirds within it, and was replaced by this much older name. 33 species

          • NightjarsCaprimulgiformes9 species
            Nightjars and nighthawks Caprimulgidae 9
          • SwiftsApodiformes24 species
            Swifts Apodidae 5Hummingbirds Trochilidae 19

      • Land birds Telluraves

        The landbirds: raptors, owls, mousebirds, trogons, hornbills, kingfishers, woodpeckers, falcons, parrots and all the songbirds. Almost everything that lives in trees and grasps with foot or bill belongs here; in most of its subgroups the birds are hunters. 493 species

        • Raptors, owls, kingfishers and woodpeckers Afroaves

          The half of the landbirds centred on Africa: hawks, eagles and vultures, owls, mousebirds, trogons, hornbills, hoopoes, kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers and woodpeckers. Strikingly many of them nest in cavities, and most hunt animals they seize alive. 77 species

          • Hawks and owls Hieraves

            Owls as the sister group of the hawks, eagles and vultures: day and night raptors together, with the talons and hooked bill the same design in both groups rather than two separate cases of resemblance. The support is shaky - thirty-five percent of the genes against just over thirty-four for the alternative - and the concatenated analyses of Stiller et al. 2024 actually yield a different tree; mixing of genetic material between the early branches may account for the contradiction. 50 species

            • OwlsStrigiformes19 species
              Bay owls and barn owls Tytonidae 1Owls Strigidae 18

            • Vultures, eagles and hawks Accipitrimorphae

              Vultures, hawks, eagles and the Osprey together, and with them nearly every raptor that hunts by day — except the falcons, which sit further along the tree beside the parrots and the songbirds. In North America the Turkey Vulture belongs here too, and that is a story in itself: the vultures of the New World resemble those of the Old, but the likeness lies in the trade and not in the kinship. What the group shares is the build of a grasping hunter: strong feet with curved claws, a hooked bill and forward-facing eyes. 31 species

              • New World vulturesCathartiformes3 species
                New World vultures Cathartidae 3
              • Birds of preyAccipitriformes28 species
                Ospreys Pandionidae 1Kites, Old World vultures, eagles and hawks Accipitridae 27

          • Kingfishers, woodpeckers and allies Coraciimorphae

            Mousebirds, trogons, hornbills and hoopoes, kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers and woodpeckers - mostly tropical, brightly coloured birds with short, broad wings. This is the branch in which nesting in cavities takes the most forms, from self-chiselled woodpecker holes to the hornbill nest in which the female has herself walled in. 27 species

            • TrogonsTrogoniformes2 species
              Trogons Trogonidae 2
            • Kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollersCoraciiformes3 species
              Kingfishers Alcedinidae 3
            • Woodpeckers and alliesPiciformes22 species
              Woodpeckers Picidae 22

        • Falcons, parrots and passerines Australaves

          The landbirds centred on the southern hemisphere: seriemas, falcons, parrots and all the songbirds. Two out of every three bird species on earth sit in this single branch, which reaches from the long-legged predators of South America to the tit in the garden. 416 species

          • Falcons and passerines Eufalconimorphae

            The biggest surprise of the modern bird tree: falcons are not raptors in the family sense but the closest relatives of parrots and songbirds. Their resemblance to hawks and eagles - hooked bill, gripping talons, sharp eyes - is convergence: both groups practise the same trade. 416 species

            • FalconsFalconiformes8 species
              Falcons and caracaras Falconidae 8

            • Parrots and passerines Psittacopasserae

              Parrots and songbirds are sister groups - and they are precisely the two groups that pick up their sounds by learning them from others instead of inheriting them ready-made. Vocal learning is thus a mark of this whole branch and is found in few birds outside it. 408 species

              • ParrotsPsittaciformes11 species
                African and New World parrots Psittacidae 9Old World parrots Psittaculidae 2
              • PasserinesPasseriformes397 species
                ▸ Suboscines Tyranni

                Tityras, becards and allies Tityridae 1Tyrant flycatchers and allies Tyrannidae 38

                ▸ True songbirds Passeri

                ▸ Crows and allies Corvides

                Shrike-babblers, Erpornis and vireos Vireonidae 15Monarchs and allies Monarchidae 3Shrikes Laniidae 2Crows, jays and magpies Corvidae 19

                ▸ Sparrows and allies Passerides

                ▸ Tits, swallows and warblers Sylviida

                Penduline tits Remizidae 1Tits, chickadees and titmice Paridae 12Larks Alaudidae 2Reed warblers and allies Acrocephalidae 1Swallows Hirundinidae 8Tit-warblers, bushtits and long-tailed tits Aegithalidae 1Bush warblers and allies Cettiidae 1Leaf warblers Phylloscopidae 2Bulbuls Pycnonotidae 2Parrotbills and allies Paradoxornithidae 1White-eyes and allies Zosteropidae 1Laughingthrushes and allies Leiothrichidae 3

                ▸ Thrushes, flycatchers and starlings Muscicapida

                Waxwings Bombycillidae 2Silky-flycatchers Ptiliogonatidae 1Kinglets Regulidae 2Nuthatches Sittidae 4Treecreepers Certhiidae 1Gnatwrens and gnatcatchers Polioptilidae 4Wrens Troglodytidae 10Mockingbirds and thrashers Mimidae 11Rhabdornis, starlings and mynas Sturnidae 2Dippers Cinclidae 1Thrushes and allies Turdidae 20Chats, Old World flycatchers and allies Muscicapidae 8

                ▸ Finches, sparrows and buntings Passerida

                Olive warbler Peucedramidae 1Munias, parrotfinches, waxbills and allies Estrildidae 8Accentors Prunellidae 1Snowfinches and Old World sparrows Passeridae 2Wagtails and pipits Motacillidae 9Finches, euphonias and allies Fringillidae 40Longspurs and snow buntings Calcariidae 6Old World buntings Emberizidae 2New World sparrows Passerellidae 43Spindalises Spindalidae 1New World blackbirds, troupials and allies Icteridae 25New World warblers Parulidae 54Cardinals and allies Cardinalidae 18Tanagers and allies Thraupidae 8

Source of the arrangement: the arrangement and sequence of orders, families, genera and species follow AviList; the clades above them follow the family-genome tree of the B10K project and carry names from the PhyloCode. AviList v2025b · Stiller et al. 2024, Nature 629, 851–860 (B10K)

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