Classification

Distinguishing taxonomic features

The limits and interrelationships of galliform families have been determined on the basis of general body proportions, muscle and bone configurations, plumage, clutch size and egg characteristics, the appearance of the young, and some aspects of behaviour. Early 21st-century studies have utilized the biochemistry of DNA to indicate relationships.

Annotated classification

• Order Galliformes

  • • Family Megapodiidae (megapodes or mound builders)

      All use heat other than body heat to incubate their eggs. Large feet, small heads. Tail often vaulted. Medium to large birds, 25–65 cm (10–25 inches); sexes alike. 1 fossil, Chosornis praeteritus, from the upper Pleistocene; 7 extant genera, 12 species. Australia and East Indies to central Polynesia.

    • Family Cracidae (chachalacas, guans, and curassows)

      Tail moderately long and broad. Plumage black or brown, duller in female. Most species with bare skin between eyes and beak (lores), some with fleshy wattles or other ornaments on face or crown. Medium to large; length 52–99 cm (20–39 inches). Lower Eocene to present; 11 fossil and 11 extant genera, 34 species. New World tropics and subtropics, from southern Texas to Paraguay.

    • Family Tetraonidae (grouse)

      Distinguished by having lower leg (tarsus) and sometimes feet at least partially feathered; nostrils also feathered. Tail strong; ornamental in some species. Many with brightly coloured bare skin over eye. Medium to large; 30–90 cm (12–36 inches). Lower Miocene to present; 3 fossil and 9 extant genera, 17 species. North America and northern Eurasia.

    • Family Phasianidae (pheasants, quail, chickens, partridges, turkeys, and relatives)

      Nostrils, feet, and (usually) tarsus unfeathered; esophageal air sacs lacking. Many species with spurs on the back of the tarsus. Plumage, especially of males, bright in many species, often with ornamental feathers; sexes usually different. Small to large; length 13–200 cm (5–80 inches). About 50 genera, approximately 200 extant species; virtually worldwide, except southern third of South America, northern Eurasia, and some oceanic islands.

    • Family Numididae (guinea fowl)

      Distinguished by presence of small whitish spots on dark bluish or slate body feathers; head and neck bare or slightly feathered, often brightly coloured. Legs and feet large; spurs present only in Phasidus and Agelastes. Medium to large; length 43–75 cm (17–30 inches). No fossil species; 5 genera, 7 species. Africa south of the Sahara and Madagascar.

Critical appraisal

In most taxonomic systems, domestic chickens, turkeys, quail, and pheasant have been placed in the family Phasianidae. In some classifications, turkeys and New World quail are placed into their own families, Meleagrididae and Odontophoridae, respectively. Of the phasianids, the New World quail are genetically the most divergent natural group, whereas the turkeys are simply large pheasants.

Descriptions of the enigmatic hoatzin are retained in this article only for convenience. It has been allied in some taxonomic systems to turacos and cuckoos; however, early 21st-century DNA studies clearly refute the proposed cuckoo relationship, though they do not offer a strong alternative. Some authorities place the hoatzin in the family Opisthocomidae in the order Cuculiformes.