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Fabulous Fairy-wrens

10,000 Birds

There are antwrens of South America, wren-babblers of South East Asia, the New Zealand wrens and the multitude of scrubwrens, heathwrens and fernwrens of Australia. On the whole they tend to be as generally drab when it comes to plumage as the true wrens of the Americas and Eurasia.

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

10,000 Birds

The Hoatzin, which may have reached South America by raft , has resisted placement in basically every study ever done. Meanwhile, we have a robust new tree to help us understand bird diversity, and the technical accomplishments pioneered in this project will influence future work significantly.

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