Order: Charadriiformes (jacanas, oystercatchers, plovers, turnstones, sandpipers, stints, snipe, curlews, phalaropes, avocets, stilts, dikkops, coursers, pratincoles, skuas, gulls, terns, skimmers)

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class: Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial vertebrates) > Tetrapoda (four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota > Reptilia (reptiles) > Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria > Dinosauria (dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) > Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves (birds)

Families indigenous to southern Africa

Pteroclidae (sandgrouse)
Scolopacidae (turnstones, sandpipers, phalaropes, Ruff, stints, godwits, snipe, whimbrels, curlews)
Rostratulidae (Painted Snipe) Worldwide, there are two species in two genera. The only Species indigenous to southern Africa is the Greater painted snipe Rostratula benghalensis.
Jacanidae (jacanas)
Chionididae (sheathbills) Only one species recorded in southern Africa, Chionis albus (Greater sheathbill, Snowy sheathbill)
Burhinidae (thick-knees, dikkops)
Haematopodidae (oystercatchers)
Recurvirostridae (avocets and stilts)
Charadriidae (plovers, lapwings)
Dromadidae (Crab Plover) One species, the Crab plover Dromas ardeola.
Glareolidae (coursers and pratincoles)
Laridae (skuas, jaegers, gulls, terns, skimmers, noddies)