sentences:  To date, there is no specific phylogeny for avian malaria parasites and related haemosporidian parasites.However, given that malaria parasites can be found in reptiles, birds and mammals, it is possible to combine the data from these groups and a well resolved large phylogeny is available.For over a century, parasitologists classified malaria parasites based on morphological and life-history traits and new molecular data shows that these have variable phylogenetic signals.