List of bird genera

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
See also: List of birds, List of reptile genera, and List of chordate orders

Accipitriformes
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
Landing mallard drake

Waterfowl

Apodiformes
Purple-throated carib feeding at a flower

Swifts, treeswifts and hummingbirds

Apterygiformes
A Southern brown kiwi.

Bucerotiformes

Hornbills, hoopoes, and wood-hoopoes

A Western red-billed hornbill.

Caprimulgiformes

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

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

Cariamiformes
Red-legged seriema, Cariama cristata

Casuariiformes

Cassowaries and emus

Southern cassowary

Cathartiformes

New World vultures

American black vultures on a horse carcass

Charadriiformes

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

European herring gull

Ciconiiformes

Storks, openbills, and jabiru

Marabou stork at Etosha National Park in Namibia

Coliiformes

Mousebirds

Blue-naped mousebird (Urocolius macrourus)

Columbiformes

Pigeons and doves

Rock dove in flight

Coraciiformes

Rollers, bee eaters, todys, kingfishers, etc.

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

Cuculiformes

Cuckoos, anis, etc.

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

Eurypygiformes

Sunbitterns and kagu

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

Falconiformes

Falcons and caracara

The laughing falcon is a snake-eating specialist

Galliformes

Gamebirds

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

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

Gruiformes

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

Rails are one of the most widespread Gruiformes

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

Mesitornithiformes
Subdesert mesite, Monias benschi

Musophagiformes

Turacos and go-away-birds

Great blue turaco
Corythaeola cristata

Opisthocomiformes
Hoatzin at Lake Sandoval, Peru

Otidiformes

Bustards, floricans, etc.

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

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

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

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

Phoenicopteriformes
James's flamingos at Laguna Colorada in Bolivia

Piciformes
A black-rumped flameback using its tail for support

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

Podicipediformes
Diving grebe

Procellariiformes

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

Parrots, parakeets, macaws, and cockatoos

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

Pterocliformes
Pallas's sandgrouse in a field in the Gobi Desert

Rheiformes
A flock of rhea in Lenschow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

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

Strigiformes

Owls

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

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

Suliformes

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

Little cormorant Phalacrocorax niger

Tinamiformes
Great tinamou roosting

Trogoniformes

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.
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