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Birding the Kruger Park (2): Bateleur area

10,000 Birds

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. Another member of the stork family, the African Openbill , looks like it is could benefit from a good orthodontist. Ostriches originated in Asia.

Ostriches 147
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Here’s the new bird family tree. It’s amazing.

10,000 Birds

’s bird family tree in a new tab and follow along as you read. The new 48-genome analysis included only ostrich and tinamou DNA, so it doesn’t shed further light on paleognath interrelationships, but it does reinforce their distinctiveness from all other living birds. Open Jarvis et al.’s Ratites, Tinamous, and Fowl.

Family 279
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The complete guide to Dodo relatives, living and dead

10,000 Birds

Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. In order to raise our awareness, to remind us of what we have lost, and to inspire us to fight for Every.