Vorstman's Guide to the Birds of Europe

The tree works down layer by layer: from the main branches of the bird tree through ever smaller clades to orders, families and species. Every clade has a name — some long-established, some only coined in 2024. Where the genetic support is weak, it says so.

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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. 730 species

  • Birds with a flexible 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 European bird on this site belongs here. 730 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. 86 species

      • Waterfowl Anseriformes 62 species
        Ducks, geese and swans Anatidae 62
      • Gamebirds Galliformes 24 species
        Guineafowl Numididae 1New World quail Odontophoridae 2Pheasants and partridges Phasianidae 21

    • 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. 644 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. 9 species

        • Flamingos Phoenicopteriformes 3 species
          Flamingos Phoenicopteridae 3
        • Grebes Podicipediformes 6 species
          Grebes Podicipedidae 6

      • Doves, cuckoos and allies Columbaves

        Pigeons, sandgrouse, mesites, cuckoos, turacos and bustards in one branch - a group with no shared outward characters. The group turns up in some genome studies and not in others, which keeps it one of the shakier main branches of the tree. 23 species

        • Bustards, turacos and cuckoos 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. 6 species

          • Bustards Otidiformes 4 species
            Bustards Otididae 4
          • Cuckoos Cuculiformes 2 species
            Cuckoos Cuculidae 2

        • 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. 17 species

          • Sandgrouse Pterocliformes 5 species
            Sandgrouse Pteroclidae 5
          • Pigeons and doves Columbiformes 12 species
            Pigeons and doves Columbidae 12

      • 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. 203 species

        • Cranes and waders 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. 143 species

          • Cranes, rails and allies Gruiformes 14 species
            Cranes Gruidae 4Rails and crakes Rallidae 10
          • Waders, gulls and terns Charadriiformes 129 species
            ▸Plovers and allies Charadrii

            Stone-curlews Burhinidae 2Avocets and stilts Recurvirostridae 2Oystercatchers Haematopodidae 1Plovers and lapwings Charadriidae 17

            ▸Sandpipers and snipes Scolopaci

            Painted-snipes Rostratulidae 1Sandpipers and snipes Scolopacidae 49

            ▸Gulls, terns and auks Lari

            Buttonquails Turnicidae 1Pratincoles and coursers Glareolidae 4Skuas Stercorariidae 4Auks Alcidae 6Gulls and terns Laridae 42

        • 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. 49 species

          • Tropicbirds and sunbittern 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. 1 species

            • Tropicbirds Phaethontiformes 1 species
              Tropicbirds Phaethontidae 1

          • Core 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. 48 species

            • Divers Gaviiformes 5 species
              Divers Gaviidae 5
            • Tubenoses Procellariiformes 17 species
              Southern storm petrels Oceanitidae 2Northern storm petrels Hydrobatidae 4Petrels and shearwaters Procellariidae 11
            • Storks Ciconiiformes 2 species
              Storks Ciconiidae 2
            • Gannets and cormorants Suliformes 5 species
              Gannets Sulidae 2Cormorants Phalacrocoracidae 3
            • Pelicans, herons and ibises Pelecaniformes 19 species
              Ibises and spoonbills Threskiornithidae 4Pelicans Pelecanidae 2Herons and bitterns Ardeidae 13

        • Nightjars and swifts Strisores

          Nightjars, the oilbird, potoos, owlet-nightjars, swifts and hummingbirds: from slow twilight hunters with a large gaping mouth to birds built almost entirely for flight. The old nightjar order turned out to contain the swifts and hummingbirds within it, and was replaced by this much older name. 11 species

          • Nightjars Caprimulgiformes 4 species
            Nightjars Caprimulgidae 4
          • Swifts Apodiformes 7 species
            Swifts Apodidae 7

      • Landbirds 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. 409 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. Many of them nest in cavities, and most hunt animals they seize alive. 69 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. 48 species

            • Owls Strigiformes 17 species
              Barn owls Tytonidae 1Typical owls Strigidae 16
            • Birds of prey Accipitriformes 31 species
              Ospreys Pandionidae 1Hawks, eagles and kites Accipitridae 30

          • Rollers, kingfishers and woodpeckers 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. 21 species

            • Hoopoes and hornbills Bucerotiformes 1 species
              Hoopoes Upupidae 1

            • Kingfishers, bee-eaters and woodpeckers Picodynastornithes

              Kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers as the sister group of the woodpeckers, barbets and toucans. Both groups dig or chisel out their own nest hole - in a steep bank, a termite mound or a tree trunk - which makes them builders rather than tenants, independent of holes that happen to be there. 20 species

              • Kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers Coraciiformes 8 species
                Rollers Coraciidae 1Bee-eaters Meropidae 3Kingfishers Alcedinidae 4
              • Woodpeckers and allies Piciformes 12 species
                Woodpeckers Picidae 12

        • 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 seriemas of South America to the tit in the garden. 340 species

          • Falcons and passerines Eufalconimorphae

            In 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. 340 species

            • Falcons Falconiformes 12 species
              Falcons Falconidae 12

            • 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. 328 species

              • Parrots Psittaciformes 5 species
                Parrots Psittacidae 3Old World parakeets Psittaculidae 2
              • Passerines Passeriformes 323 species
                ▸True songbirds Passeri

                ▸Crows and allies Corvides

                Bushshrikes Malaconotidae 1Vireos Vireonidae 1Orioles Oriolidae 1Shrikes Laniidae 9Crows and jays Corvidae 15

                ▸Sparrows and allies Passerides

                ▸Tits, swallows and warblers Sylviida

                Penduline tits Remizidae 2Tits Paridae 10Bearded reedlings Panuridae 1Larks Alaudidae 20Cisticolas Cisticolidae 2Reed warblers Acrocephalidae 18Grasshopper warblers Locustellidae 5Swallows and martins Hirundinidae 8Long-tailed tits Aegithalidae 1Bush warblers Cettiidae 2Leaf warblers Phylloscopidae 17Bulbuls Pycnonotidae 4Sylvia warblers Sylviidae 22Parrotbills Paradoxornithidae 2Laughingthrushes Leiothrichidae 3

                ▸Thrushes, flycatchers and starlings Muscicapida

                Waxwings Bombycillidae 1Hypocolius Hypocoliidae 1Kinglets Regulidae 3Wallcreepers Tichodromidae 1Nuthatches Sittidae 5Treecreepers Certhiidae 2Wrens Troglodytidae 1Mockingbirds and thrashers Mimidae 1Starlings Sturnidae 6Dippers Cinclidae 1Thrushes Turdidae 12Chats and flycatchers Muscicapidae 42

                ▸Finches, sparrows and buntings Passerida

                Sunbirds Nectariniidae 1Weavers Ploceidae 2Indigobirds and whydahs Viduidae 1Waxbills Estrildidae 6Accentors Prunellidae 4Sparrows Passeridae 10Wagtails and pipits Motacillidae 18Finches Fringillidae 33Longspurs and snow buntings Calcariidae 2Buntings Emberizidae 17New World sparrows Passerellidae 4New World blackbirds Icteridae 1New World warblers Parulidae 3Cardinals Cardinalidae 1

Source of the arrangement: The arrangement and sequence of orders, families, genera and species follow AviList; the clades above them follow the family-level 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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