Hundreds of new genomes help fill the bird ‘tree of life’

Avian genetic toolkits could let scientists unravel 150 million years of evolutionary history

photograph of a roadrunner with a lizard in its beak

A greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) catches a scaly snack. The bird is one of the animals whose genetic instruction book, or genome, has been assembled for the first time.

Brian Schmidt/Smithsonian

From gulls to grouse to grackles, more than 10,000 bird species live on this planet.