Taxonomists just completed creating the most updated version of the "Bird Family Tree" that includes all recognized 11,167 bird species! You can refer to the new illustrated Phylogeny Explorer to see the connections between different birds you encounter and others that interest you. Understanding bird systematics and the connections between different birds and bird families is an interesting part of becoming a better birder, and now Birds of the World provides a way for users to trace any bird's lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button online.
Available on Birds of the World, the Phylogeny Explorer offers a captivating experience for exploring avian evolution, discovering the connection of closely related species, and grasping the timescales when they evolved.
To use the new Phylogeny Explorer, click on the Phylogeny button on the left side of the opening page of Birds of the World. For additional information and links, you can also click on the Taxonomy button, which provides many additional insights into families and species of birds. To utilize all the Birds of the World resources, simply click on the red Subscribe button, and you can subscribe for 10 percent off now.
Understanding avian ancestry, which biologists refer to as phylogeny, is a fundamental topic that underpins most research in ornithology. With more than 11,167 bird species in 251 families of birds in the world, organizing the available "phylogenetic trees" into a single illustration, and keeping it current, has long challenged ornithologists. Now, the Phylogeny Explorer provided at Birds of the World by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology uniquely addresses these challenges by using the latest research.
The new Phylogeny Explorer combines centuries of bird research with computerized tools to create an engaging and interactive resource that tells the story of how birds evolved," said Dr. Eliot Miller, researcher with the American Bird Conservancy and one of the project leads.
"This tool greatly benefits science," added Dr. Pam Rasmussen, senior research associate and avian systematist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "The entire tree of life for birds, built on the latest phylogenetic research, is now an interactive and downloadable dataset from Birds of the World that will stimulate endless questions and deeper research. The tree is a vital entry point for answering so many questions, such as how evolution may have influenced beak shape, wing length, foraging behavior, habitat preferences, or other traits in birds."
"Birders will be excited by the Explorer's built-in personalization," said Marshall Iliff, eBird project lead who also serves on the Cornell Lab's taxonomy team with Dr. Rasmussen. By logging into Phylogeny Explorer, birders can visualize the diversity of their eBird life list. Users can also zoom into different parts of the tree to examine their birding history in the context of bird orders, families, and genera to reveal evolutionary patterns in the species they have observed and focus on birds they may want to find or learn more about. Suddenly, a birder's life list becomes a personal journey through evolutionary history that shows not only which birds they see, but how those species fit into the grander story of avian evolution.
Users of the Phylogeny Explorer are bound to encounter a few surprises. For example, how can Downy Woodpeckers look so much like Hairy Woodpeckers, and yet not be closely related? Why do falcons, despite being fierce hunters like hawks and eagles, actually belong to completely different branches of the family tree? Taxonomic puzzlers like these will give anyone interested in birds a lot to study. This project brings to life research concepts developed by biologists and taxonomists to date, and you can learn more about the methods for developing the Phylogeny Explorer at About the Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer - Birds of the World