We corroborate many higher-level avian relationships from Hackett et al. (2008). We compared total evidence (50-gene) analyses to independent analyses of published (19-gene) and novel (31-gene) data. Independent analyses highlighted a small number of conflicts. A single locus (FGB) had a strong influence on the total evidence analysis. A different locus (BDNF) had an affect on the species tree estimated from gene trees.