Falcons No Longer Hawks!
If you're expecting this announcement to be followed by a text version of the classic "April Fools" shout, sorry, this is for real. If you're still incredulous, just have a gander at the new Sibley Guide to Birds and see if the Falcons are still Buteo adjacent; the taxonomy is a changin'. The American Birding Association explains the adjustment nicely:
Recent genetic studies found that falcons are much more closely related 
to songbirds than to other “hawks”—quite a jolt to our traditional belief. According to this research, falcons' closest relatives are a group (or "clade") consisting of the parrots and the passerines.
The American Ornithologist's Union has moved the Falcon Family out of the Hawks and placed them between the Parrots and the Woodpeckers on their North American checklist. Only time will tell, but it is likely that our forays into the genetic wonderland will soon reveal even more surprises.
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