List of bird genera explained
See also: List of birds, List of reptile genera and List of chordate orders. 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.
Eagles, Old World vultures, secretary-birds, hawks, harriers, etc.
- Family Accipitridae - buzzards, eagles, harriers, hawks, kites, Old World vultures
- Family Cathartidae - New World vultures
- Family Pandionidae - osprey
- Family Sagittariidae - secretarybird
Waterfowl
- Family Anhimidae - screamers
- Family Anatidae
- Genus Aix - Mandarin duck and wood duck – dabbling ducks or Tadorninae?
- Genus Alopochen - Egyptian goose and Mascarene shelducks
- Genus Amazonetta - Brazilian teal
- Genus Anas - pintails, mallards, etc.
- Genus Anser - grey geese and white geese
- Genus Aythya - pochards, scaups, etc.
- Genus Biziura - musk ducks
- Genus Branta - black geese
- Genus Bucephala - goldeneyes
- Genus Cairina - Muscovy duck and white-winged duck (traditionally dabbling ducks, but may be paraphyletic)
- Genus Callonetta - ringed teal (dabbling ducks or Tadorninae?)
- Genus Cereopsis - Cape Barren goose (Anserinae, Tadorninae, or own subfamily?)
- Genus Chenonetta - maned duck (dabbling ducks or Tadorninae? Includes Euryanas.)
- Genus Chloephaga - sheldgoose
- Genus Clangula - long-tailed duck
- Genus Coscoroba - coscoroba swan (Anserinae or same subfamily as Cereopsis?)
- Genus Cyanochen - blue-winged goose (Tadorninae or more distant clade?)
- Genus Cygnus - true swans
- Genus Dendrocygna - whistling ducks
- Genus Heteronetta - black-headed duck
- Genus Histrionicus - harlequin duck (includes Ocyplonessa)
- Genus Hymenolaimus - blue duck
- Genus Lophodytes - hooded merganser
- Genus Lophonetta - crested duck
- Genus Malacorhynchus - pink-eared ducks (Tadorninae, Oxyurinae or Dendrocheninae?)
- Genus Mareca - wigeons and gadwalls
- Genus Marmaronetta - marbled duck
- Genus Melanitta - scoters
- Genus Merganetta - torrent duck
- Genus Mergellus - smew
- Genus Mergus - mergansers
- Genus Neochen
- Genus Netta - red-crested pochard and allies
- Genus Nettapus - pygmy geese
- Genus Nomonyx - masked duck
- Genus Oxyura - stiff-tailed ducks
- Genus Plectropterus - spur-winged goose
- Genus Polysticta - Steller's eider
- Genus Pteronetta - Hartlaub's duck
- Genus Radjah - Radjah shelduck
- Genus Salvadorina - Salvadori's teal
- Genus Sarkidiornis - comb duck (Tadorninae or closer to dabbling ducks?)
- Genus Sibirionetta - Baikal teal
- Genus Somateria - eiders
- Genus Spatula - shovelers
- Genus Speculanas - bronze-winged duck
- Genus Stictonetta - freckled duck
- Genus Tachyeres - steamer ducks (Tadorninae or closer to dabbling ducks?)
- Genus Tadorna - shelducks (possibly paraphyletic)
- Genus Thalassornis - white-backed duck
- Family Anseranatidae
Swifts, treeswifts and hummingbirds
Hornbills, hoopoes, and wood-hoopoes
Nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, oilbirds, frogmouths and owlet-nightjars
Cassowaries and emus
New World vultures
Plovers, crab plovers, lapwings, seagulls, puffins, auks, sandpipers, buttonquails, stilts, avocets, ibisbills, woodcocks, skuas, etc.
Storks, openbills, and jabiru
Mousebirds
Columbiformes
Pigeons and doves
Rollers, bee eaters, todies, kingfishers, etc.
Cuckoos, anis, etc.
Sunbitterns and kagu
Falcons and caracara
Galliformes
Gamebirds
Cranes, crakes, rails, wood-rails, fluftais, gallinules, limpkin, trumpeters, and finfoots
Turacos and go-away-birds
Otidiformes
Bustards, floricans, etc.
Passerines, the "song birds". This is the largest order of birds and contains more than half of all birds.
- Family Acanthisittidae
- Family Acanthizidae - scrubwrens, thornbills, and gerygones
- Family Acrocephalidae - marsh- and tree-warblers, recently split from the Sylviidae
- Family Aegithalidae - long-tailed tits or bushtits
- Family Aegithinidae
- Family Alaudidae - larks
- Family Artamidae - woodswallows, butcherbirds, currawongs, and Australian magpie
- Family Atrichornithidae
- Family Bernieridae - Malagasy warblers, a newly assembled family
- Family Bombycillidae
- Family Buphagidae
- Genus Buphagus - oxpeckers. Formerly usually included in Sturnidae.
- Family Calcariidae - longspurs and snow buntings
- Family Callaeidae - New Zealand wattlebirds
- Family Calyptophilidae
- Family Campephagidae - cuckooshrikes and trillers
- Family Cardinalidae - cardinals and allies
- Family Certhiidae - treecreepers
- Family Cettiidae - ground-warblers and allies, recently split from the Sylviidae
- Family Chaetopidae
- Genus Chaetops - rockjumpers, recently split from the Turdidae
- Family Chloropseidae
- Family Cinclidae
- Family Cisticolidae - cisticolas and allies
- Family Climacteridae - Australian treecreeper
- Family Cnemophilidae - satinbirds
- Family Conopophagidae - gnateaters and gnatpittas
- Family Corcoracidae - Australian mudnester
- Family Corvidae - crows, ravens, and jays
- Family Cotingidae - cotingas and allies
- Family Dasyornithidae
- Genus Dasyornis - bristlebirds (formerly in Acanthizidae)
- Family Dicaeidae - flowerpeckers (sunbirds and flowerpeckers, might be included in Passeroidea)
- Family Dicruridae
- Family Donacobiidae
- Genus Donacobius - black-capped donacobius (previously classed as a wren, but probably closest to the Locustellidae or Bernieridae)
- Family Dulidae (tentatively placed here)
- Family Elachuridae
- Family Emberizidae
- Family Erythrocercidae
- Family Estrildidae - estrildid finches (waxbills, munias, and allies)
- Family Eulacestomidae
- Family Eupetidae
- Genus Eupetes - Malaysian rail-babbler (recently split from the Cinclosomatidae)
- Family Eurylaimidae - broadbills
- Family Formicariidae - Antthrushe
- Family Fringillidae - true finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers. (Possibly polyphyletic)
- Family Furnariidae - ovenbirds and woodcreepers
- Family Grallariidae - antpittas
- Family Hirundinidae - swallows and martins
- Family Hyliidae - newly proposed for genera currently in other families
- Family Hyliotidae
- Genus Hyliota - hyliotas (recently split from the Sylviidae)
- Family Hypocoliidae
- Genus Hypocolius - grey hypocolius (tentatively placed here)
- Family Icteridae - grackles, New World blackbirds, and New World orioles
- Family Ifritidae
- Genus Ifrita - blue-capped ifrit
- Family Irenidae
- Genus Irena - fairy-bluebirds
- Family Laniidae - shrikes
- Family Leiothrichidae - laughingthrushes and allies
- Family Locustellidae - grass-warbler and allies, recently split from the Sylviidae
- Family Machaerirhynchidae
- Family Macrosphenidae - African warblers such as longbills and crombecs, a recently proposed family whose composition is still uncertain
- Family Malaconotidae - puffbacks, bushshrikes, tchagras, boubous, and allies
- Family Maluridae - fairywrens, emu-wren, and grasswrens
- Family Melampittidae
- Family Melanocharitidae - berrypeckers and longbills
- Family Melanopareiidae
- Family Meliphagidae - honeyeaters
- Family Menuridae
- Family Mimidae - mockingbirds and thrashers
- Family Mitrospingidae
- Family Modulatricidae - dapple-throat and allies (sometimes Arcanatoridae)
- Family Mohouidae
- Family Monarchidae - monarch flycatchers
- Family Motacillidae
- Family Muscicapidae - Old World flycatchers and chats. (Monophyly needs confirmation)
- Family Nectariniidae - sunbirds and spiderhunters
- Family Neosittidae
- Genus Daphoenositta - sittellas
- Family Nesospingidae
- Family Nicatoridae
- Family Notiomystidae
- Family Oreoicidae - Australo-Papuan bellbirds
- Family Oriolidae - Old World orioles
- Family Orthonychidae
- Family Pachycephalidae
- Family Panuridae
- Genus Panurus - bearded reedling (formerly classed as a parrotbill)
- Family Paradisaeidae - birds-of-paradise
- Family Paramythiidae - painted berrypeckers
- Family Pardalotidae
- Family Paridae - Tits, chickadees, and titmice
- Family Parulidae - New World warblers
- Family Passerellidae - New World sparrows
- Family Passeridae - Old World sparrows
- Family Pellorneidae - jungle babblers
- Family Petroicidae - Australasian robins
- Family Peucedramidae
- Family Phaenicophilidae
- Family Philepittidae - asities
- Family Phylloscopidae - leaf-warblers and allies (recently split from the Sylviidae)
- Family Picathartidae
- Family Pipridae - manakins
- Family Pittidae - pittas
- Family Pityriaseidae
- Genus Pityriasis - Bornean bristlehead (tentatively placed here)
- Family Platysteiridae - wattle-eyes and relatives (formerly in Passerida, probably paraphyletic)
- Family Ploceidae - weavers
- Family Pnoepygidae
- Family Polioptilidae - gnatcatchers
- Family Pomatostomidae - Australo-Papuan babblers
- Family Prionopidae - see Vangidae
- Family Promeropidae
- Family Prunellidae
- Family Psophodidae
- Family Ptiliogonatidae - silky flycatchers (tentatively placed here)
- Family Ptilonorhynchidae - bowerbirds
- Family Pycnonotidae - bulbuls
- Family Regulidae
- Family Remizidae - penduline tits (sometimes included in the Paridae)
- Family Rhagologidae
- Family Rhinocryptidae - tapaculos
- Family Rhipiduridae - fantails
- Family Rhodinocichlidae
- Family Salpornithidae
- Genus Salpornis - spotted creepers (Tentatively placed here; often considered a subfamily of the Certhidae)
- Family Sapayoidae
- Genus Sapayoa - broad-billed sapayoa
- Family Scotocercidae
- Family Sittidae
- Family Spindalidae
- Family Stenostiridae
- Family Sturnidae - starlings
- Family Sylviidae - sylviid warblers and allies
- Genus Chamaea – wrentit
- Genus Chleuasicus – pale-billed parrotbill (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae)
- Genus Cholornis (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae)
- Genus Chrysomma (Formerly in Timaliidae)
- Genus Conostoma – great parrotbill (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae; tentatively placed here)
- Genus Fulvetta (Formerly in Alcippe)
- Genus Graueria - Grauer's warbler
- Genus Horizorhinus – Dohrn's thrush-babbler (Formerly in Timaliidae)
- Genus Lioparus – golden-breasted fulvetta (Formerly in Alcippe)
- Genus Lioptilus – bush blackcap (Formerly in Timaliidae)
- Genus Moupinia - rufous-tailed babbler (Formerly in Chrysomma)
- Genus Myzornis - fire-tailed myzornis
- Genus Neosuthora – short-tailed parrotbill (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae)
- Genus Paradoxornis (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae)
- Genus Parophasma - Abyssinian catbird
- Genus Pseudoalcippe (Formerly in Illadopsis)
- Genus Psittiparus (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae)
- Genus Rhopophilus (Formerly in Cisticolidae)
- Genus Sinosuthora (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae)
- Genus Suthora (Formerly in Paradoxornithidae)
- Genus Sylvia – typical warblers
- Family Teretistridae
- Family Thamnophilidae - antbirds
- Family Thraupidae - tanagers and allies
- Family Tichodromadidae
- Family Timaliidae - Old World babblers
- Family Tityridae - tityras and allies
- Family Troglodytidae - wrens
- Family Turdidae - thrushes and allies (Monophyly needs confirmation)
- Family Tyrannidae - tyrant flycatchers
- Family Urocynchramidae
- Family Vangidae - vangas, helmetshrikes, and allies
- Family Viduidae
- Family Vireonidae - vireos and allies
- Family Zeledoniidae
- Family Zosteropidae - white-eyes
- Family Uncertain (This has traditionally been considered a member of the family Pachycephalidae, but recent genetic evidence suggests it should be placed in a monotypic subfamily of the family Bombycillidae, or even its own family, Hylocitreidae)
Pelicans, ibises, shoebills, egrets, herons, etc.
Woodpickers, flickers, toucans, aracaris, motmots, etc.
Procellariiformes
Petrels, storm petrels, albatrosses, and diving petrels
Parrots, parakeets, macaws, and cockatoos
Sphenisciformes
- Family Spheniscidae - penguins
Owls
Boobies, gannets, frigatebirds, cormorants, shags, and darters
- Family Anhingidae
- Genus Anhinga - darters and anhinga
- Family Fregatidae
- Genus Fregata - frigatebirds
- Family Phalacrocoracidae
- Family Sulidae
Trogons and quetzals
