Ardeae

Ardeae is a clade of birds that contains Eurypygimorphae and Aequornithes, named in 2014 by genome analysis. Members of Eurypygimorphae were originally classified in the obsolete group Metaves, and Aequornithes were classified as the sister taxon to Musophagiformes or Gruiformes.

Ardeae has also been used in older classifications as a suborder of Ciconiiformes containing herons and related species.

Cladogram based on Kuhl, H. et al. (2020)