Charadriiformes is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water and eat invertebrates or other small animals; however, some are pelagic (seabirds), others frequent deserts, and a few are found in dense forest. Members of this group can also collectively be referred to as shorebirds.
A phalarope is any of three living species of slender-necked shorebirds in the genus Phalaropus of the bird family Scolopacidae.
The Gruiformes are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like".
Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to forage for food crawling or burrowing in the mud and sand, usually small arthropods such as aquatic insects or crustaceans. The term "wader" is used in Europe, while "shorebird" is used in North America, where "wader" may be used instead to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons.
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed in the genus Larus, but that arrangement is now considered polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection of several genera. An older name for gulls is mews, which is cognate with German Möwe, Danish måge, Swedish mås, Dutch meeuw, Norwegian måke/måse, and French mouette, and can still be found in certain regional dialects.
Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of eleven genera. They are slender, lightly built birds with long, forked tails, narrow wings, long bills, and relatively short legs. Most species are pale grey above and white below, with a contrasting black cap to the head, but the marsh terns, the Inca tern, and some noddies have dark plumage for at least part of the year. The sexes are identical in appearance, but young birds are readily distinguishable from adults. Terns have a non-breeding plumage, which usually involves a white forehead and much-reduced black cap.
The seedsnipes are a small family, Thinocoridae, of small gregarious waders which have adapted to a herbivorous diet. The family is divided into two genera, Attagis and Thinocorus, each containing two species. The family has a South American distribution, in the Andean and Patagonian regions. The relationships with other families within the order Charadriiformes are uncertain; it has been suggested that the plains wanderer of Australia, the jacanas and the painted snipes are their closest relatives. The plains wanderer in particular has a similar feeding ecology, although differs markedly in breeding biology. The family's common name is misleading, as they do not resemble true snipe, having short bills on small heads, and seeds do not form a major part of the diet. One species Thinocorus rumicivorus is however known to feed on the fleshy flower petal appendages of Calceolaria uniflora, a species of Scrophularaceae. In the process of feeding on these sugar rich appendages, they also pollinate the flowers.
Buttonquail or hemipodes are members of a small family of birds, Turnicidae, which resemble, but are not closely related to, the quails of Phasianidae. They inhabit warm grasslands in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia. There are 18 species in two genera, with most species placed in the genus Turnix and a single species in the genus Ortyxelos.
Laridae is a family of seabirds in the order Charadriiformes that includes the gulls, terns, noddies, skimmers, and kittiwakes. It includes around 100 species arranged into 22 genera. They are an adaptable group of mostly aerial birds found worldwide.
The suborder Lari is the part of the order Charadriiformes that includes the gulls, terns, skuas and skimmers; the rest of the order is made up of the waders and snipes. The auks are now placed into the Lari too, following recent research. Sometimes, the buttonquails are also placed here, but the molecular data and fossil record rather suggests they are a quite basal offshoot along with the snipe-like and aberrant waders.
A stint is one of several very small waders in the paraphyletic "Calidris" assemblage – often separated in Erolia – which in North America are known as peeps. They are scolopacid waders much similar in ecomorphology to their distant relatives, the charadriid plovers.
Tringa is a genus of waders, containing the shanks and tattlers. The genus name Tringa is the Neo-Latin name given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1599. They are mainly freshwater birds, often with brightly coloured legs as reflected in the English names of six species, as well as the specific names of two of these and the green sandpiper. They are typically associated with northern hemisphere temperate regions for breeding. Some of this group—notably the green sandpiper—nest in trees, using the old nests of other birds, usually thrushes.
The Terek sandpiper is a small migratory Palearctic wader species and is the only member of the genus Xenus. It is named after the Terek River which flows into the west of the Caspian Sea, as it was first observed around this area.
Actitis is a small genus of waders, comprising just two very similar bird species.
The black-breasted buttonquail is a rare buttonquail endemic to eastern Australia. As with other buttonquails, it is unrelated to the true quails. The black-breasted buttonquail is a plump quail-shaped bird 17–19 cm (6.7–7.5 in) in length with predominantly marbled black, rufous, and pale brown plumage, marked prominently with white spots and stripes, and white eyes. Like other buttonquails, the female is larger and more boldly coloured than the male, with a distinctive black head and neck sprinkled with fine white markings. The usual sex roles are reversed, as the female mates with multiple male partners and leaves them to incubate the eggs.
The shore plover, also known as the shore dotterel, is a small plover endemic to New Zealand. Once found all around the New Zealand coast, it is now restricted to a few offshore islands. It is one of the world's rarest shorebirds: the population is roughly 200.
Sylvioidea is a superfamily of passerine birds, one of at least three major clades within the Passerida along with the Muscicapoidea and Passeroidea. It contains about 1300 species including the Old World warblers, Old World babblers, swallows, larks and bulbuls. Members of the clade are found worldwide, but fewer species are present in the Americas.
The jungle babblers are a family, Pellorneidae, of mostly Old World passerine birds belonging to the superfamily Sylvioidea. They are quite diverse in size and coloration, and usually characterised by soft, fluffy plumage and a tail on average the length of their body, or longer. These birds are found in tropical zones, with the greatest biodiversity in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Gruimorphae is a clade of birds that contains the orders Charadriiformes and Gruiformes identified by molecular analysis. This grouping has had historical support, as various charadriiform families such as the families Pedionomidae and Turnicidae were classified as gruiforms. It may also have support from the fossil record since the discovery of Nahmavis from the Early Eocene of North America.
The Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland of South Australia is a temperate grassland in the southeast of South Australia that stretches from Orroroo in the north, to Strathalbyn in the south, just straddling the eastern fringes of Adelaide's Mount Lofty Ranges. Listed as Critically Endangered under the EPBC Act, the grasslands predominantly feature Iron-grasses.
