List of bird genera

Summary

List of bird genera concerns the chordata class of aves or birds, characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, and a high metabolic rate.

Restless flycatcher in the downstroke of flapping flight

Accipitriformes edit

 
Portrait of a bald eagle, showing its strongly hooked beak and the cere covering the base of the beak.

Eagles, Old World vultures, secretary-birds, hawks, harriers, etc.

Anseriformes edit

 
Landing mallard drake

Waterfowl

Apodiformes edit

 
Purple-throated carib feeding at a flower

Swifts, treeswifts and hummingbirds

Apterygiformes edit

 
A Southern brown kiwi.

Bucerotiformes edit

Hornbills, hoopoes, and wood-hoopoes

 
A Western red-billed hornbill.

Caprimulgiformes edit

Nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, oilbirds, frogmouths and owlet-nightjars

 
The Madagascan nightjar is restricted to the islands of Madagascar and the Seychelles.

Cariamiformes edit

 
Red-legged seriema, Cariama cristata

Casuariiformes edit

Cassowaries and emus

 
Southern cassowary

Cathartiformes edit

New World vultures

 
American black vultures on a horse carcass

Charadriiformes edit

Plovers, crab plovers, lapwings, seagulls, puffins, auks, sandpipers, buttonquails, stilts, avocets, ibisbills, woodcocks, skuas, etc.

 
European herring gull

Ciconiiformes edit

Storks, openbills, and jabiru

 
Marabou stork at Etosha National Park in Namibia

Coliiformes edit

Mousebirds

 
Blue-naped mousebird (Urocolius macrourus)

Columbiformes edit

Pigeons and doves

 
Rock dove in flight

Coraciiformes edit

Rollers, bee eaters, todies, kingfishers, etc.

 
Like many forest-living kingfishers, the yellow-billed kingfisher often nests in arboreal termite nests.

Cuculiformes edit

Cuckoos, anis, etc.

 
Some species, like the Asian emerald cuckoo (Chrysococcyx maculatus) exhibit iridescent plumage.

Eurypygiformes edit

Sunbitterns and kagu

 
The sunbittern will open its wings to display two large eye spots when threatened

Falconiformes edit

Falcons and caracara

 
The laughing falcon is a snake-eating specialist

Galliformes edit

Gamebirds

 
Despite its distinct appearance, the wild turkey is actually a very close relative of pheasants

Gaviiformes edit

 
Red-throated loon (G. stellata), the smallest living Gavia species. Some Miocene members of this genus were smaller still.

Gruiformes edit

Cranes, crakes, rails, wood-rails, fluftais, gallinules, limpkin, trumpeters, and finfoots

 
Rails are one of the most widespread Gruiformes

Leptosomiformes edit

 
The cuckoo roller exhibits a pronounced sexual dichromatism in the plumage.

Mesitornithiformes edit

 
Subdesert mesite, Monias benschi

Musophagiformes edit

Turacos and go-away-birds

 
Great blue turaco
Corythaeola cristata

Opisthocomiformes edit

 
Hoatzin at Lake Sandoval, Peru

Otidiformes edit

Bustards, floricans, etc.

 
Captive specimen of a male great bustard, showing the characteristic long, beard-like feathers and heavy build.

Passeriformes edit

 
Clockwise from top right: Palestine sunbird (Cinnyris osea), blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), great tit (Parus major), hooded crow (Corvus cornix), southern masked weaver (Ploceus velatus)

Passerines, the "song birds". This is the largest order of birds and contains more than half of all birds.

Pelecaniformes edit

 
A brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis, taken in Santa Barbara, California

Pelicans, ibises, shoebills, egrets, herons, etc.

Phaethontiformes edit

 
Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus subsp. mesonauta) in waters around Trinidad & Tobago

Phoenicopteriformes edit

 
James's flamingos at Laguna Colorada in Bolivia

Piciformes edit

 
A black-rumped flameback using its tail for support

Woodpickers, flickers, toucans, aracaris, motmots, etc.

Podicipediformes edit

 
Diving grebe

Procellariiformes edit

Petrels, storm petrels, albatrosses, and diving petrels

 
The poorly known New Zealand storm petrel was considered extinct for 150 years before being rediscovered in 2003.

Psittaciformes edit

Parrots, parakeets, macaws, and cockatoos

 
Most parrot species are tropical, but a few species, like this austral parakeet, range deeply into temperate zones.

Pterocliformes edit

 
Pallas's sandgrouse in a field in the Gobi Desert

Rheiformes edit

 
A flock of rhea in Lenschow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Sphenisciformes edit

 
Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) feeding young. Like its relatives, a neatly bi-coloured species with a head marking.

Strigiformes edit

Owls

 
Great horned owl perched on the top of a Joshua tree at evening twilight in the Mojave Desert USA.

Struthioniformes edit

 
A male Somali ostrich in a Kenyan savanna, showing its blueish neck

Suliformes edit

Boobies, gannets, frigatebirds, cormorants, shags, and darters

 
Little cormorant Phalacrocorax niger

Tinamiformes edit

 
Great tinamou roosting

Trogoniformes edit

Trogons and quetzals

 
A pair of scarlet-rumped trogons, showing sexual dimorphism in the plumage. The female is on the left, male on the right.