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Telluraves, also known as land birds or core landbirds is a recently defined clade of defined by their arboreality. Based on most recent genetic studies, the clade unites a variety of bird groups, including the Australaves (, , , and ) as well as the Afroaves (including the Accipitrimorphae – , , , etc. – and , among others). This grouping was defined in the PhyloCode by George Sangster and colleagues in 2022 as "the least inclusive crown clade containing Accipiter nisus and Passer domesticus". They appear to be the sister group of the Phaethoquornithes.
Given that the most basal extant members of both Afroaves (Accipitrimorphae, Strigiformes) and Australaves (Cariamiformes,While seriemas are typically not considered birds of prey, Jarvis et al. 2014 says that they could be considered to belong to a raptorial taxon. Falconiformes) are birds of prey, it has been suggested that the last common ancestor of all Telluraves may have been an apex predator, and possibly also a bird of prey. Other researchers are skeptical of this assessment, citing the herbivorous cariamiform Strigogyps as evidence to the contrary.
Afroaves has not always been recovered as a monophyletic clade in subsequent studies. For instance, Prum et al. (2015) recovered the accipitrimorphs as the sister group to a clade (Eutelluraves) comprising the remaining Afroavian orders and Australaves.,Prum, R.O. et al. (2015) A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526, 569–573. while an analysis by Houde et al. (2019) recovered a clade of accipitrimorphs and owls as sister to the remaining landbirds. Wu et al. (2024) also found recovered and found support the clade of accipitrimorphs and owls (which they have named Hieraves), but found the clade to be sister to Australaves, while Coraciimorphae is the basal most clade in Telluraves.
The cladogram of the Telluraves shown below is based on the study by Josefin Stiller and collaborators published in 2024. The species numbers are taken from the December 2023 version of the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). This list includes the Cathartiformes (New World vultures) in the order Accipitriformes.
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