Cypselomorphae

Taxonomic history

The taxonomy of this group of birds has a long and complicated history. Jean Cabanis originally coined the name Strisores in 1847 as an order encompassing a much broader group of birds subdivided into two 'tribes': the Macrochires (hummingbirds, swifts, and nightjars, including oilbirds and potoos, but notably excluding frogmouths) and the Amphibolae (hoatzin, mousebirds, and turacos). Hermann Burmeister later excluded the taxa in Cabanis' Amphibolae from Strisores, but added kingfishers and motmots. Subsequent authors used either definition according to their own judgement, with Baird following Cabanis', and Cooper following Burmeister's usage. In 1867, Thomas Henry Huxley proposed the name Cypselomorphae for hummingbirds, swifts, and nightjars (including owlet-nightjars and potoos), however, he considered frogmouths and oilbirds unrelated due to aspects of their skull morphology. In the 1880s Anton Reichenow continued to use Strisores in a similar sense as Huxley's Cypselomorphae (this time also excluding the owlet-nightjars), but by the late 19th Century, Strisores had fallen into disuse, and this remained the case through the 20th Century.