Researchers Have Mapped the Evolution of Every Known Bird Species

Scitech Daily ^ | May 09, 2025 | University of California - Merced

[ifinnegan]

Good one.

[Flycatcher]

Yes, I’ll be performing a morning bird survey tomorrow morning at my home and submitting the survey to ebird.

I regularly post my survey results to ebird and now a have a HUGE yardbird list (a yardbird is a species that you were able to see or hear while being in your yard). As it stands now, my yardbird list (after a little over two years at our house) sits at 101. Yes, you read right. I’ve identified 101 different species in my backyard. Now to go look for 102… 🙂

[Jamestown1630]

That’s pretty cool. May I ask where you live?

[Verginius Rufus]

Birds are avian dinosaurs.

Some dinosaurs had feathers. So maybe dinosaurs need to be divided between feathered and unfeathered.

Of course there were two major orders of dinosaurs and birds are descended from one of them only.

An ancient Greek philosopher defined "man" as "a featherless biped with broad nails." So have to make sure none of the featherless dinosaurs had broad nails, or the definition of human beings will need to be further refined.

[Flycatcher]

Sure. Hot Springs Village in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. But I get a real boost in the yardbird list by living on a small, beautiful lake. Right now Green Herons and Wood Ducks are seen every day. But the lake attracts a lot of other birds too. Number 100 was Blackpoll Warbler, and Number 101 (which I got three days ago) was Spotted Sandpiper.

Yardbirding is quite fun!

[Jamestown1630]

You’re in a wonderful spot.

[Flycatcher]

Definitely!

[Jamestown1630]

I’m in a suburb of DC and they recently removed the closest thing to ‘woods’ nearby; but I’ve been surprised at how many different birds we see even here.

I think the most beautiful bird song I’ve encountered is that of the Wood Thrush. When I lived near a wood with a creek running through it, the Wood Thrush often sounded like a UFO in an old 1950s movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcR6XrnD7Yc

[Flycatcher]

Yes! The thrushes are amazing, especially the Wood Thrush. It can almost “throw its voice” too so it sounds like it’s singing from two different places. Shockingly, I haven’t got a Wood Thrush yet in my yard, but we’ve seen many migrant Swainson’s Thrushes as they pass through. To me, their song is almost as magnificent as the song of the Wood Thrush.

But anyway, you might consider starting a yard list, if you haven’t already. As you say, it’s surprising just how many different birds can be out there.

[Jamestown1630]

'like it’s singing from two different places'

That's exactly how it was; and it sounded different as you - or the bird - moved around.

I kept a life list for years, and then got very busy and abandoned it...I'll try again with a yard list.

[SunkenCiv]

The Secret Language Of Birds | 4:19
Ian Anderson - Topic | 6.3K subscribers | 82,100 views | November 8, 2014

[SunkenCiv]

[Jamestown1630]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_the_birds

https://philosophicalmindspodcast.com/2024/08/the-green-language-unveiling-the-esoteric-code-of-the-alchemists-and-mystics/

https://archive.org/details/LanguageOfTheBirds/page/n1/mode/2up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mansions

[gleeaikin]

In what state or region is your backyard located?

[AdmSmith]

Nice, there is a presentation on YT: Avian Phylogeny: a complete and dynamic tree of birds featuring ELIOT MILLER | Birds of the World. We present early results on a project that seeks to more directly unite emerging evolutionary understanding with taxonomic revisions. By collaborating with the Open Tree of Life, we have created a modern phylogeny that can be readily updated as new evolutionary results are published, one that will one day directly link to the taxonomy and data resources used by Birds of the World.

We'll discuss our methods for creating the phylogeny, why it's important, as well as exciting ways to combine these new tools with birdwatching itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi8EwSo-pYA

Birds of the World is a powerful resource that brings deep, scholarly content from four celebrated works of ornithology into a single platform where biologists and birders can find comprehensive life history information on birds. https://birdsoftheworld.org

[AdmSmith]

The article: A complete and dynamic tree of birds

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409658122

Open Tree of Life aims to construct a comprehensive, dynamic and digitally-available tree of life by synthesizing published phylogenetic trees along with taxonomic data. The project is a collaborative effort between 11 PIs across 10 institutions. Funded by NSF ABI #1759838, NSF AVAToL #1208809. More information and tutorials at https://opentreeoflife.github.io/

[Flycatcher]

I live on a small, forested lake in Hot Springs Village in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. Paradise on earth, as far as I’m concerned. 🙂

[9YearLurker]

Surely Big and Larry are from the same branch.

[Jamestown1630]

Thanks.

The Barred Owls that I watch every year through Cornell and WBU have fledged; now I’m watching this little American Kestrel in Wisconsin – she has five eggs:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/american-kestrels/