Flamingo by Dan at Flamingo Gardens

So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:21-22 NKJV)

Recently, I have been interested in genealogy. I have been working on our ancestry while staying home since I have been “under the weather.” It is really fun and exciting finding out about my previous generations. It also can be time-consuming and addictive, if you let it.

I can only imagine how those that are working on the DNA of our avian friends feel. If you have been following this blog very long, you know that I keep updating my Birds of the World when a new version comes out. When the Ver. 4.2 came out I.O.C. Version 4.2 Updated, I wrote this:

“They (the birds) are still doing as commanded by the Lord to reproduce and keeping the ornithologist busy naming, renaming, and rearranging them.

This time they renamed one and moved it to a new family just for it. The Spotted Wren-Babbler (Spelaeornis formosus) was in the Timaliidae Family. It has been renamed the Spotted Elachura (Elachura formosa) and placed in its own Elachuridae Family. (I do not have permission yet to post a photo.)

• New Elachura Bird Species With Unusual Song Discovered in Himalayas
• New bird family discovered in Asia – BBC

Version 4.2 also took the Lark Family and tossed it up in the air and rearranged it. See the Alaudidae – Larks Family. The DNA researches are keeping them busy keeping up with how the birds bred. Some of the scientific names were changed:”

Tawny-throated Leaftosser (Sclerurus mexicanus) by Michael Woodruff

Maybe the DNA Bird Researchers could hire this Leaftosser to help them out. Not sure if the next version coming out soon will toss another family up in the air or not.

Of course, we believe that God created these beautiful, and not so beautiful, birds and not by evolution over millions of years. Yes, they did inter-breed over the years and you have different looks and songs within the families. But they are still birds and the Lord has wonderfully made DNA that helps trace that.

Today, you can trace your own ancestors through DNA. I don’t understand much about it, but what I do know is this:

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. (Psalms 139:14 NKJV)

Here are some interesting articles that do discuss DNA from a Christian Perspective:

• What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?
• Can We Really Reverse-Engineer a Dinosaur?
• Pigeon Study Confirms Creation
• Darwin’s Finches: Answers From Epigenetics
• Study Shows Bird Species Change Fast

(From this article) But nowhere does the Bible say that species cannot change! Instead, it seems that they would have to change—within the limits of their own interbreeding kind—in order to fulfill God’s command in Genesis 1 for His living creatures to fill the earth and its many changing environments.

Darwin insisted that animals slowly change between kinds. In contrast, seedeater birds have shown that they rapidly changed within their kind. Despite Campagna’s touting of Darwin’s “accomplishments,” these birds display programmed variation, not evolution.

Marsh Seedeater (Sporophila palustris) ©WikiC

Good News
*