Columbaves is a clade that contains
Columbimorphae (pigeons, mesites, and sandgrouse) and
Otidimorphae (bustards, cuckoos, and turacos) discovered by genomic analysis by Prum et al. (2015).[1] This conflicts with the
Columbea and
Otidae hypotheses which
Mirandornithes are the sister taxon to
Columbimorphae and
Cypselomorphae the sister taxon to
Otidimorphae, respectively, found by Jarvis et al. (2014).[2] Neither hypothesis supports the two subdivisions of
Metaves and Coronoaves as previous studies had found.[3][4]
In 2020 Kuhl et al. sequenced 3-prime untranslated region (3’UTR) from 429 species and 379 genera of birds found support of Columbaves in their study. However they have found that cuckoos are the sister group to pigeons within Columbimorphae instead as shown in the cladogram below:[5]