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Will parrots and falcons soon be moved around in your field guide?

10,000 Birds

Here’s a prediction: Parrots , falcons , and seriemas are on their way to new positions in your checklists and, eventually, field guides. However, evidence has mounted in recent years that falcons are not closely related to other diurnal raptors and seriemas don’t belong anywhere near gruiform birds. I like this one too.)

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Songbird-parrot link strengthened in new study, with implications for vocal learning

10,000 Birds

Last month, I wrote about hypothesized relationships between passerines, parrots, falcons, and seriemas , noting a need for further research on the subject. The post stimulated some great discussions but not really any additional commentary on the science behind these proposed relationships. Ringer Suh et al. Ringer Suh et al.

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I and the Bird: What is a Falcon?

10,000 Birds

What is a falcon, really? Based on their physical attributes and lifestyle, falcons enjoyed a very long run as a founding member of the order Falconiformes, along with the rest of the diurnal raptor-y type birds like vultures and eagles and hawks and hawk-eagles. Laughing Falcon, photo by Renato Espinosa. Like falcons?

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The mousebird mystery

10,000 Birds

’s “land bird clade,” with passerines, parrots, falcons, woodpeckers, the Coraciiformes (kingfishers, hornbills, bee-eaters, etc.), But to what other birds are mousebirds related? But to what other birds are mousebirds related? They do belong in Hackett et al.’s 2011 ) across different types of analyses.

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Summer Books for Kids (and the rest of us)

10,000 Birds

Parrots Over Puerto Rico is a wonderland of colors and shapes. The story of the Puerto Rican Amazon, also known as the Puerto Rico Parrot, Parrots Over Puerto Rico is illustrated with deeply hued collages created by Susan L. The parrots called as they looked for deep nesting holes in the tall trees. Other Europeans came.

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AOU 53rd supplement: Highlights and near misses

10,000 Birds

Falcons split from hawks to join parrots and songbirds Unanimously, the committee voted to remove falcons (Falconiformes) and parrots (Psittaciformes) from their current positions in the list and place them before the songbirds (Passeriformes), more closely to reflect the relationships between these three great orders.

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Here’s the new bird family tree. It’s amazing.

10,000 Birds

So do parrots, some songbirds, humans, and a few other mammals. 2014 ). “New World” vultures (in scare quotes because they have fossil relatives from the Old World) and hawks (including Osprey and Secretarybird but, importantly, not falcons) are sister taxa and split off from other members of the Afroaves clade early on.

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