Classification By Ancestry
The diurnal birds of prey are formally classified into five families (traditionally of the order Falconiformes, a classification currently in flux):
- Accipitridae: hawks, eagles, buzzards, harriers, kites and Old World vultures
- Pandionidae: the osprey (sometimes classified as subfamily Pandioninae of the previous family)
- Sagittariidae: the secretary bird
- Falconidae: falcons and caracaras
- Cathartidae: New World vultures including condors.
The nocturnal birds of prey – the owls – are classified separately as members of two extant families of the order Strigiformes:
- Strigidae: (typical owls)
- Tytonidae: (barn and bay owls).
The observation that otherwise unrelated bird groups may perform similar ecological roles and bear striking morphological similarities to one another is explained by the concept of convergent evolution.
Read more about this topic: Bird Of Prey
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“I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)