The Accipitridae is one of the three families within the order Accipitriformes, and is a family of small to large birds of prey with strongly hooked bills and variable morphology based on diet. They feed on a range of prey items from insects to medium-sized mammals, with a number feeding on carrion and a few feeding on fruit. The Accipitridae have a cosmopolitan distribution, being found on all the world's continents and a number of oceanic island groups. Some species are migratory. The family contains 255 species which are divided into 70 genera.
Plovers are members of a widely distributed group of wading birds of family Charadriidae. The term "plover" applies to all the members of the family, though only about half of them include it in their name.
The Gruiformes are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like".
The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy legs and feet typical of these terrestrial birds. All are browsers, and all except the malleefowl occupy wooded habitats. Most are brown or black in color. Megapodes are superprecocial, hatching from their eggs in the most mature condition of any bird. They hatch with open eyes, bodily coordination and strength, full wing feathers, and downy body feathers, and are able to run, pursue prey and, in some species, fly on the day they hatch.
Struthionidae is a family of flightless birds, containing the extant ostriches and their extinct relatives. The two extant species of ostrich are the common ostrich and Somali ostrich, both in the genus Struthio, which also contains several species known from Holocene fossils such as the Asian ostrich. The common ostrich is the more widespread of the two living species, and is the largest living bird species. The extinct genus Pachystruthio from the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene of Eurasia is one of the largest birds ever.
The family Threskiornithidae includes 36 species of large wading birds. The family has been traditionally classified into two subfamilies, the ibises and the spoonbills; however recent genetic studies have cast doubt on this arrangement, and have found the spoonbills to be nested within the Old World ibises, and the New World ibises as an early offshoot.
Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera Botaurus and Ixobrychus are referred to as bitterns, and, together with the zigzag heron, or zigzag bittern, in the monotypic genus Zebrilus, form a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae. Egrets do not form a biologically distinct group from herons, and tend to be named differently because they are mainly white or have decorative plumes in breeding plumage. Herons, by evolutionary adaptation, have long beaks.
Guineafowl are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched off from the core Galliformes after the Cracidae and before the Odontophoridae. An Eocene fossil lineage Telecrex has been associated with guineafowl; Telecrex inhabited Mongolia, and may have given rise to the oldest of the true phasianids, such as blood pheasants and eared pheasants, which evolved into high-altitude, montane-adapted species with the rise of the Tibetan Plateau. While modern guineafowl species are endemic to Africa, the helmeted guineafowl has been introduced as a domesticated bird widely elsewhere.
The manakins are a family, Pipridae, of small suboscine passerine birds. The group contains 55 species distributed through the American tropics. The name is from Middle Dutch mannekijn "little man".
Francolins are birds in the tribe Gallini that traditionally have been placed in the genus Francolinus, but now commonly are divided into multiple genera.
The least grebe, an aquatic bird, is the smallest member of the grebe family. It occurs in the New World from the southwestern United States and Mexico to Argentina, and also on Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles.
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
The genus Cathartes includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture (Cathartidae) family. The three extant species currently classified in this genus occur widely in the Americas. There is one extinct species known from the Quaternary of Cuba.
The singing quail is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
The plushcap is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae and it is the only member of the genus Catamblyrhynchus.
Capito is a genus of birds in the family Capitonidae. They are found in humid forests in South America, with a single species extending into eastern Panama. Slightly larger than the members of the genus Eubucco, members of the genus Capito are all sexually dimorphic and thickset, and have stubby pale bills that often are tipped black. With the exception of the somewhat aberrant scarlet-crowned barbet, black, red, orange, yellow and white are the dominating colours in their plumage, and males have at least partially black backs. Typically seen singly or in pairs, they are primarily frugivorous, but also take arthropods.
The red-headed barbet is a species of bird in the family Capitonidae, the New World barbets. It is found in Costa Rica, Guyana, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The lemon-throated barbet is a species of bird in the New World barbet family Capitonidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The scarlet-hooded barbet is a species of bird in the family Capitonidae, the New World barbets. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru.
The versicolored barbet is a very colorful species of bird in the family Capitonidae, the New World barbets. It is found in Bolivia and Peru.
