Aves Class

Aves - Birds or feathered animals.

eBirdr uses the established scientific classification system. All species are assigned a unique two or three part italicized Latin descriptor. The first part of the scientific name is always capitalized and refers to the genus, the second or third part of the name refers to species. The genus contains from one to a number of closely related species. Generic names help us therefore to identify closely related species. This established convention allows anyone in the world to understand exactly what animal is referred to.

All living things are divided into two major categories the animal Kingdom (Animalia) and the plant Kingdom (Plantae). These categories are broken down into successive smaller groups according to relationships. In this way similar organisms are grouped together. As an example, the White-throated Sparrow is classified Kingdom - Animalia; Phylum - Chordata; Subphylum - Vertebrata; Class - Aves (Birds) ; Order - Passeriformes (Songbirds); Family - Emberizidae (Sparrows); Genus - Zonotrichia; Species - Zonotrichia Subspecies - albicollis. Therefore the White-throated Sparrow can be uniquely referred to by it's scientific name of: Zonotrichia albicollis

You may drill down (or up) through this tree structure from more general birds in an order to more specific Family then to Genus and finally to a specific species of interest. In the species profiles related birds within a Genus are given so that you can easily refer to similar birds. And as indicated, you may also go upward from a search, from a specific species to more general birds to Genus, to Family, to Order etc.

The Orders and Families have English descriptions to facilitate understanding and searches of the overall classification structure.

Orders