Osprey

In the Nov. 11 issue of the journal Nature, scientists from the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Copenhagen, BGI-Shenzen, the University of California, Santa Cruz and approximately 100 other institutions report on the genomes of 363 species of birds, including 267 that have been sequenced for the first time. The studied species represent more than 92% of the world’s avian families. The data from the study will advance research on the evolution of birds and aids in the conservation of threatened bird species. The birds pictured above represent a small sample of the vast diversity of species studied.

Photo by Brian Schmidt / Smithsonian