The diverse order Gruiformes contains about 12 bird families with, on first sight, little in common. Gruiform means "crane-like."

Traditionally, a number of wading and terrestrial bird families that did not seem to belong to any other order were classified together as Gruiformes. These included the large land-based bustards, the very large cranes, the relatively small and secretive water-loving crakes and rails, and the small, plump buttonquail (all families with a wide distribution and a dozen or more member species), as well as a variety of very small families, several of them containing just a single species.

On first sight, the Gruiformes seem to have little in common with one another because they are morphologically diverse. However, anatomical evidence indicates that several groups within the traditional Gruiformes do appear to be genetically related. Several subsets of Gruiformes are recognized. The Rallidae and the Heliornithidae are associated as the Ralli (although some authorities have argued that the Rallidae deserve ordinal status). Aramidae and the Psophiidae form the Grui.

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