Apodiformes
| Apodiformes Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| A bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), the smallest bird on earth. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Strisores |
| Clade: | Daedalornithes |
| Order: | Apodiformes Peters, 1940 |
| Families | |
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| Worldwide range of the apodiformes. | |
| Synonyms | |
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The Apodiformes /ˈæpədɪfɔːrmiːz/ is an order, or taxonomic grouping, of birds which traditionally contained three living families—the Apodidae (swifts), the Hemiprocnidae (treeswifts), and the Trochilidae (hummingbirds); however, in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, this order is elevated to the superorder Apodimorphae, in which hummingbirds are separated into a new order, the Trochiliformes. With nearly 450 species identified to date, it is the most diverse order of birds after the Passeriformes (the "perching" birds).