List of birds

This article lists living orders and families of birds. In total there are about 10,000 species of birds described worldwide, though one estimate of the real number places it at almost twice that.^[1] The order passerines (perching birds) alone accounts for well over 5,000 species.

Taxonomy is very fluid in the age of DNA analysis, so comments are made where appropriate, and all numbers are approximate. In particular see Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for a very different classification.