List of bird orders



This page lists living orders and families of birds. The links below should then lead to family accounts and hence to individual species.

The passerines (perching birds) alone account for well over 5,000 species. In total there are about 10,000 species of birds described worldwide, though one estimate of the real number places it at almost twice that.

Taxonomy is very fluid in the age of DNA analysis, so comments are made where appropriate, and all numbers are approximate. In particular see Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for a very different classification.

Phylogeny
Cladogram of modern bird relationships based on Jarvis, E.D. et al. (2014) with some clade names after Yuri, T. et al. (2013).

Palaeognathae

 * Struthioniformes

Rheimorphae

 * Rheiformes

Tinamimorphae

 * Tinamiformes
 * †Dinornithiformes
 * †Lithornithiformes

Novaeratitae

 * Casuariiformes
 * Apterygiformes
 * †Aepyornithiformes