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biodiversity explorer

the web of life in southern Africa

Order: Ciconiiformes (grebes, tropicbirds, boobies, gannets, anhingas, cormorants, herons, bitterns, egrets, Hamerkop, flamingos, ibises, spoonbills, pelicans, Shoebill, New World vultures, condors, storks, frigatebirds, penguins, divers, storm-petrels, albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, diving-petrels)

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class: Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial vertebrates) > Tetrapoda (four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota > Reptilia (reptiles) > Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria > Dinosauria (dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) > Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves (birds) 

Families indigenous to southern Africa

Podicipedidae (grebes)

Phaethontidae (tropicbirds)

Sulidae (gannets and boobies)

Anhingidae (darters)

There are 2-4 species worldwide (depending on the interpretation of species) of which one occurs in southern Africa, Anhinga rufa (African darter).

Phalacracoridae (cormorants)

Ardeidae (herons, egrets and bitterns)

Scopidae (Hamerkop)

One species: the Hamerkop Scopus umbretta.

Phoenicopteridae (flamingoes)

Threskiornithidae (ibises and spoonbills)

Pelecanidae (pelicans)

Ciconiidae (storks)

Fregatidae (frigatebirds)

Spheniscidae (penguins)

Hydrobatidae (storm-petrels)

Diomedeidae (albatrosses)

Procellariidae (petrels, shearwaters)