The world's songbirds come from Australia - iPetBird.com Pet Birds Care

Songbirds are so named because they represent some of nature’s greatest singers, and perhaps because of this remarkable skill of communication, these birds have spread throughout the world, and are now found on every continent except Antarctica. Songbirds are by far the largest group of birds. In the world today, with more than 5,000 species of songbirds spread throughout the world, these songbird species account for nearly half of all bird species on Earth.

Now that an extensive genetic study of these different songbirds has clearly pinpointed the place where they all first evolved: Australia, the research also describes in unprecedented detail how the first songbirds set out from Australia to eventually colonize the world.

One of the challenges with deciphering the evolutionary history of songbirds is that they diversified so rapidly that previous studies have had difficulty estimating the branching pattern of the songbird family tree, explained lead author Rob Moyle, “With advances in DNA sequencing technology, we have been able to collect an unprecedented amount of It has an example of DNA sequence data that has helped clarify the relationships of songbirds.

The world's songbirds — The world’s songbirds

Understanding the time frame in the branching pattern of the songbird family tree also helps explain their geographic distribution, because geography has changed dramatically since songbirds first appeared, and tens of millions of years ago, the continents were in different places and sea rates were exposed or submerged in different land basins. It can serve as a launching point for birds to move between continents.

For example, previous theories suggested that songbirds first traveled out of Australia via islands in the Indian Ocean, until they reached Africa, and eventually reached the rest of the world from there, but new research offers a different approach, suggesting that the age of songbirds is actually About half of what previous theories assumed, which means that the Indian Ocean islands were submerged at the time the songbirds spread out of Australia.

So, the new model proposes that songbirds first appeared outside Australia via primitive islands that eventually became modern island nations of New Guinea and the Indonesian archipelago, and spread to the rest of the world via Southeast Asia. However, several major branches of the songbird lineage began Diversify in Australia, before moving elsewhere, research suggests.

Biologically, Australia is already a fascinating place, home to the vast majority of the world’s marsupials, even egg-laying mammals, and it now appears that nearly half of all modern bird species come from the continent as well.

Next time you hear a songbird chirp, remember how powerfully evolved this ability to sing is, an ability that has propelled a small group of charming birds from Australia to every corner of the world.

Songbirds can reach about 4,000 species, which are approximately half of the birds found around the world, and include between 35 to 55 families. Most types of pet birds inside the cage belong to these songbirds, and both songbirds have a vocal organ. It is very developed, although not all birds use it. Among these songbirds, which are considered among the most beautiful natural animals, are the robin, the cardinal, the blue jay, the swallow, and many other birds.