Australaves
The taxon comprises ~7,000 species in four orders:
Traditional family-level timetree of extant Australaves according to Stiller et al.
(2024), with the distribution of each taxon being indicated by the
colour-code used throughout this website (Distribution code). The ~150 currently recognised families of the order Passeriformes are not shown.
Chronoclassified (radically new!) family-level timetree of extant Australaves based on the timetrees of Stiller et al. (2024) and Luo et al. (2025), with the distribution of each taxon being indicated by the colour-code used throughout this website (Distribution code). Taxa are considered families, if they are at least ~30 million years old (Serial cutoffs for avian chronoclassification). The abbreviation “s.l.” stands for “sensu lato” and refers to the new, extended composition of the corresponding families. [Note that Cacatuidae may be lumped with Psittacidae.]
Traditional family-level classification of extant Australaves. Individual passerine families are treated
separately. (Passerine families)
References
Jarvis ED, Mirarab S, Aberer AJ, Li B, Houde P, Li C, Ho SYW, Faircloth BC, Nabholz B, Howard JT, Suh A, Weber CC, da Fonseca RR, Li J, Zhang F, Li H, Zhou L, Narula N, Liu L, Ganapathy G, Boussau B, Bayzid S, Zavidovych V, Subramanian S, Gabaldón T, Capella-Gutiérrez S, Huerta-Cepas J, Rekepalli B, Munch K, Schierup M, Lindow B, Warren WC, Ray D, Green RE, Bruford CW, Zhan X, Dixon A, Li S, Li N, Huang Y, Derryberry EP, Bertelsen MF, Sheldon FH, Brumfield RT, Mello CV, Lovell PV, Wirthlin M, Cruz Schneider MP, Prosdocimi F, Samaniego JA, Vargas Velazquez AM, Alfaro-Núñez A, Campos PF, Petersen B, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Pas A, Bailey T, Scofield P, Bunce M, Lambert DM, Zhou Q, Perelman P, Driskell AC, Shapiro B, Xiong Z, Zeng Y, Liu S, Li Z, Liu B, Wu K, Xiao J, Yinqi X, Zheng Q, Zhang Y, Yang H, Wang J, Smeds L, Rheindt FE, Braun M, Fjeldsa J, Orlando L, Barker FK, Jønsson KA, Johnson W, Koepfli KP, O‘Brien S, Haussler D, Ryder OA, Rahbek C, Willerslev E, Graves GR, Glenn TC, McCormack J, Burt D, Ellegren H, Alström, Edwards SV, Stamatakis A, Mindell DP, Cracraft J, Braun EL, Warnow T, Jun W, Gilbert MTP, and Zhang G (2014), Whole-genome analysis resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds, Science 346, 1320-31. (pdf)
Kuhl H, Frankl-Vilches C, Bakker A, Mayr G, Nikolaus G, Boerno ST, Klages S, Timmermann B, and Gahr M (2021), An unbiased molecular approach using 3'UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life, Mol. Biol. Evol. 38, 108-127. (free pdf)
Luo A, Nguyen JMT, Zhou QS, Zhu CD, and Ho SYW (2025), An Eocene origin of passerine birds estimated using tip dating with fossil occurrences, bioRxiv (preprint server) (pdf)
Prum RO, Berv JS, Dornburg A, Field DJ, Townsend JP, Lemmon EM, and Lemmon AR (2015), A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing, Nature 526, 569-57. (abstract)
Stiller
J, Feng S, Chowdhury AA, Rivas-González I, Duchêne DA, Fang Q, Deng Y, Kozlov A, Stamatakis A, Claramunt S, Nguyen JMT, Ho SYW, Faircloth BC, Haag J, Houde P, Cracraft J, Balaban M, Mai U, Chen
G, Gao R, Zhou C, Xie Y, Huang Z, Cao Z, Yan Z, Ogilvie HA, Nakhleh L, Lindow B, Morel B, Fjeldså J, Hosner PA, da Fonseca RR, Petersen B, Tobias JA, Székely T, Kennedy JD, Reeve AH, Liker A,
Stervander M, Antunes A, Tietze DT, Bertelsen M, Lei F, Rahbek C, Graves GR, Schierup MH, Warnow T, Braun EL, Gilbert MTP, Jarvis ED, Mirarab S, and Zhang G (2024), Complexity of avian
evolution revealed by family-level genomes, Nature 629, 851-860. (preview pdf)
Wu S, Rheindt FE, Zhang J, Wang J, Zhang L, Quan C, Li Z, Wang M, Wu F, Qu Y, Edwards SV, Zhou Z, and Liu L (2024), Genomes, fossils, and the concurrent rise of modern birds and flowering plants in the Late Cretaceous, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 121, e:23I9696121. (pdf)
Zhao M, Thom G, Faircloth BC, Andersen MJ, Barker FK, Benz BW, Braun MJ, Bravo GA, Brumfield RT, Chesser RT, Derryberry EP, Glenn TC, Harvey MG, Hosner PA, Imfeld TS, Joseph L, Manthey JD, McCormack JE, McCullough JM, Moyle RG, Oliveros CH, White Carreiro ND, Winker K, Field DJ, Ksepka DT, Braun EL, Kimball RT, and Smith BT (2025), Efficient inference of macrophylogenies: Insights from the Avian Tree of Life, bioRxiv preprint server (pdf)