However, this treatment is now known to be paraphyletic and polyphyletic, respectively, and more recent evidence supports breaking it up into two subfamilies: Rollulinae and Phasianinae, with the latter containing multiple tribes within two clades.

Males of the bigger galliform species often boast brightly-coloured plumage, as well as facial ornaments such as combs, wattles, and/or crests.

[citation needed] The Phasianidae are mostly an Old World family, with a distribution that includes most of Europe and Asia (except the far north), all of Africa except the driest deserts, and south into much of eastern Australia and (formerly) New Zealand.

The family is generally sedentary and resident, although some members of the group undertake long migrations, like ptarmigans and Old World quail.

Incubation times can range from 14–30 days depending on the species, and is almost always done solely by the hen, although a few involve the male partaking in caring for the eggs and chicks, like the willow ptarmigan and bobwhite quail.

Ring-necked pheasants, several partridge and quail species, and some francolins have been widely introduced and managed as game birds for hunting.

[6][7] The earliest fossil records of phasianids date to the late Oligocene epoch, about 30 million years ago.

Tribes and subfamily names are based on the 4th edition of the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World.

[14] Cladogram based on a 2021 study by De Chen and collaborators that sequenced DNA flanking ultra-conserved elements.

[16] The species numbers and the inclusion of the genera Canachites, Ortygornis, Campocolinus and Synoicus follows the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union.