Apodiformes
Sign in to saveThe Apodiformes is an order, or taxonomic grouping, of birds which traditionally contained three living families—the Apodidae (swifts), the Hemiprocnidae (treeswifts), and the Trochilidae (hummingbirds); however, in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, this order is elevated to the superorder Apodimorphae, in which hummingbirds are separated into a new order, the Trochiliformes. With nearly 450 species identified to date, it is the most diverse order of birds after the Passeriformes (the "perching" birds).
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Apodiformes is an order of birds that includes swifts, treeswifts, and hummingbirds, making up nearly 450 species and representing the second-most diverse group of birds after perching birds. This grouping has been reorganized in some modern classification systems, with hummingbirds sometimes separated into their own distinct order.
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4 sectionsContents
- Description, etymology and taxonomy
- Evolution
- Taxonomy
- See also
The Apodiformes is an order, or taxonomic grouping, of birds which traditionally contained three living families—the Apodidae (swifts), the Hemiprocnidae (treeswifts), and the Trochilidae (hummingbirds); however, in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, this order is elevated to the superorder Apodimorphae, in which hummingbirds are separated into a new order, the Trochiliformes. With nearly 450 species identified to date, it is the most diverse order of birds after the Passeriformes (the "perching" birds).
==Description, etymology and taxonomy== As the name apodiforme—meaning "footless" in Greek—suggests, the legs of hummingbirds, swifts and treeswifts (or 'crested' swifts) are rather small and offer limited functional uses, aside from perching; their feet are covered with bare skin, rather than the scutes seen on many birds. Another commonality amongst Apodiformes is their evolving longer wings with short and stout humerus bones, a development which has provided the hummingbirds, in particular, with the ideal wings for hovering.