Bird Facts
Bird Families Facts
How many bird families in the world?
Following Clements/eBird 2023 taxonomy there are 250 life bird families. On IOC v14.1 taxonomy there are 252.
How many bird species in the world?
Following Clements/eBird 2023 taxonomy there are 11,017 bird species, including 160 extinct ones, so the actual number is 10,857. On IOC v13.2 taxonomy there are 11,161. You can compare between those 2 lists here.
What is the biggest bird family?
Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae) with 441 bird species is the largest. Following: Tanagers and Allies (Thraupidae) with 384 and Hummingbirds (Trochilidae) with 363 species. All three from the new world, mainly Neotropics. The 4th and the first to be globally distributed is Pigeons and Doves (Columbidae) with 353, and 5th is Old World Flycatchers (Muscicapidae) with 345. Sorting this table by Species can show the top-down list.
Lesser Kiskadee, Ecuador. One of 441 species of the biggest bird family Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae)
What is the smallest bird family?
37 monotype (single Species) bird families share this title. Listed on this table:
Osprey, one of the 37 single-species bird family, but the only monotype globally distributed one.
What is the smallest bird?
Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), member of Hummingbirds (Trochilidae) family, is the smallest bird on earth. 5.5 cm length and about 2 grams weight. Endemic to Cuba.
Bee Hummingbird, Cuba. The smallest bird on earth.
What is the largest bird?
Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus), member of Ostriches (Struthionidae) from the Afro-tropical region, is the largest living bird on earth. Adult male can reach 275 cm length and about 150 kilograms weight.
Common Ostrich, Tanzania. The largest living bird.
Who have seen all bird families of the world?
WF250, Bird Families of the World Club, lists members who archive the challenge target on the top of this table. Other birders have a few options to join, one of them is filling this form.
Which bird family distribution area is the smallest?
The monotype family of Puerto Rican Tanager (Modulatricidae), is endemic to the island of Puerto Rico, size less than 9000 sq.km, is probably the bird family with the smallest distribution area. 36 bird families are globally distributed, listed here.
Puerto Rican Tanager, Puerto Rico
Which bird name appears in largest number of bird family names?
“Warbler” appears in 9 different bird family names:
Second on the tally is “Shrike” which occurs in 7 bird family names:
4 bird names share third place, with 6 appearing for each: Babbler, Flycatcher, Tanager & Thrush. Details can be found here.
Rosy Thrush-Tanager, photographed in Panama 2019. A monotype bird family which appears twice here on 3rd place (both with Thrush & Tanager on its name).
Bird Order Facts
How many bird orders in the world?
What is the biggest bird order?
Passeriformes, with 142 families and 6595 species (53 extinct) contains about 60% of global list.
What is the smallest bird order?
2 Orders contain only 1 species (and naturally just one family): Opisthocomiformes (Hoatzin) from the Neotropics and Leptosomiformes (Cuckoo Roller) from Madagascar.
Hoatzin, Ecuador, single species order.
Cuckoo Roller, Madagascar, single species order.
Which same bird scientific name, appears in all major taxa above it up to order level?
These birds share this phenomena (Species = Genus = Familiy = Order):
Southern Cassowary: Species – casuarius, Genus – Casuarius, Familiy – Casuariidae, Order – Casuariiformes
Common Crane: Species – grus, Genus – Grus, Familiy – Gruidae, Order – Gruiformes
White Stork: Species – ciconia, Genus – Ciconia, Familiy – Ciconiidae, Order – Ciconiiformes
Red-footed Booby: Species – sula, Genus – Sula, Familiy – Sulidae, Order – Suliformes
Southern Cassowary, Australia 2013