Encyclopedia > Australasian birds

  Article Content

Australasian birds

The birds of Australasia include the following orders and families:

The final decades of the 20th century saw a massive increase in the information available to taxonomists, particularly through the DND-DNA hybridisation[?] studies of Charles Sibley and colleages. As a result, much revision of the traditional classifications has taken place. The family listing above follows the current official list from the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds.

Several well-known families have been reclassified in recent years, among them:

  • The Dromaiidae (emus) which are now part of Casuariidae[?].
  • The Ephthianuridae (Australian chats) which are clearly honeyeaters and part of the Meliphagidae.
  • The Acanthizidae which are now lumped with the Pardalotes and form part of the Pardalotidae. (The pardalotes may at some time be split off again, in which case "Acanthizidae" will apply to the remainder once again.)
  • The Grallinidae (Magpie-lark and Torrent Lark) which are part of the Dicruridae[?].

See also:



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
U.S. presidential election, 1804

... King (14) Other elections: 1792, 1796, 1800, 1804, 1808, 1812, 1816 Source: U.S. Office of the Federal R ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 38.3 ms