Phasianidae

Family of birds

Phasianidae is a family of heavy-bodied, ground-living birds that includes junglefowls, pheasants, grouse, partridges, turkeys, Old World quail and peafowl, with 185 extant species divided into 54 genera. It was formerly broken up into two subfamilies, the Phasianinae and the Perdicinae, but this arrangement is now known to be paraphyletic and polyphyletic, respectively, and more recent evidence supports breaking it up into two subfamilies: Rollulinae and Phasianinae, with the latter containing two clades with multiple tribes. The New World quail (Odontophoridae) and guineafowl (Numididae) were formerly included in this family, but are now typically placed in families of their own; conversely, grouse and turkeys, formerly often treated as distinct families (Tetraonidae and Meleagrididae, respectively), are now known to be deeply nested within Phasianidae, so they are now included in the present family.

From Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA. More on occurri.