Odd couples emerge in bird family tree

Birds of a genome: Everyone adores doves (especially John Woo); flamingos get nightclubs named after them; while the poor grebe gets very litte love – but all three sit on the same branch of the avian family tree. — Filepics; grebe photo: Wikimedia Commons/katsam

Unusual discoveries come to light from largest ever mapping of avian genomes.

Birds use essentially the same genes to sing as humans do to speak. And flamingos are more closely related to pigeons than they are to pelicans.