Avian influenza A viruses (AIV) are the causative agents of the presently most important poultry disease. Ten countries in Asia and several other countries in Eastern Europe suffer high losses from the lethal effects of these viruses of the H5N1 subtype. AIV of other subtypes cause in additional countries severe losses. The threat to health and well-being of the avifauna, domestic poultry and possibly mammals including humans are worldwide of major concern. The European Union reacted with a complete import ban on untreated meat, eggs, poultry products as well as free-living and pet birds. Extensive surveillance of free-living birds and domestic poultry that is maintained in free-range and close to open waters were initiated in an attempt to gather information on the current status of infection with these viruses and to target appropriate countermeasures for the protection of domestic poultry (in-house keeping) and to safeguard food production for humans. Since the monitoring of free-living birds is labour-intensive, costly, and time-consuming, only birds should be included in the monitoring programme that harboured in the past most if not all influenza A viruses. The birds of the order Anatiformes, family Anatidae, subfamilies Anserinae and Anatinae, provided 65.9 % of all avian AIV isolates. The cosmopolitan Common Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is the dominant species with the highest rate of isolations among all bird species. Second in frequency is the North-American Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors). Consequently, free-living anatiform birds of the genera Anas and Spatula should comprise the main focus for the collection of cloacal and pharyngeal swabs. With the likely exception of the most recent H5N1 viruses, signs of disease were not recorded in AIV infected anatiform birds. AIV isolations were definitely less frequently obtained from birds of the orders Phasianiformes (including domestic chickens and turkeys), Charadriiformes (plovers and lapwings), Lariformes (gulls), Columbiformes (pigeons) and Psittaciformes (psittacines) and need less attention in sampling efforts. This review presents also data on taxonomy and most suitable means for isolation and typing of haemagglutinating viruses. The different frequencies of the detection of 16 haemagglutinin (HA) subtypes and 9 subtypes of neuraminidase (NA) surface antigens are composed on the basis of extensive literature retrievals. Both antigens occure in isolates at different frequencies. Only 103 of all 144 possible HA x NA combinations were described so far. The AIV that contain the HA subtypes H3, H4, H6 are most frequently isolated whereas the AIV of the subtypes H5 and H7 were less frequently encountered. All other HAs are rather rare. AIV that possess the NA of the subtypes N2, N1, N8 and N3 are frequent and all other NAs are rarely detected.