Glareolidae

Juvenile Indian coursers Cursorius coromandelicus, photographed by Nikhil Devasar.

Belongs within: Charadriiformes.

The Glareolidae, pratincoles and coursers, are a small group of charadriiform birds found in tropical and subtropical, mostly arid, parts of the Old World. Glareolids are united by the possession of a short, strongly arched bill, but are morphologically disparate: pratincoles of the genus Glareola are long-winged birds that catch insects on the wing whereas coursers of the genera Rhinoptilus, Smutsornis and Cursorius are long-legged cursorial birds. Species of Rhinoptilus have a black band across the top of the breast in front of the wings.

<==Glareolidae [Cursoriinae, Glareoloidea, Tachydrominae]
    |  i. s.: Boutersemia Mayr & Smith 2001 M05
    |           |--B. belgica Mayr & Smith 2001 M09
    |           `--B. parvula Mayr & Smith 2001 M09
    |         Mioglareola Ballmann 1979 M02
    |           |--*M. gregaria Ballmann 1979 M02
    |           `--M. dolnicensis (Švec 1980) [=Larus dolnicensis] M02
    |         Paractiornis perpusillus Wetmore 1930 U93
    |--Rhinoptilus BKB15
    |    |--R. africanus JT12
    |    |--R. chalcopterus BKB15 (see below for synonymy) H66
    |    `--R. cinctus JT12
    `--+--Smutsornis africanus BKB15
       `--+--Cursorius Latham 1790 BKB15, M02 [incl. Tachydromus Illiger 1811 B94]
          |    |--C. bicinctus (see below for synonymy) H66
          |    |--C. bisignatus Hartl. 1865 H66
          |    |--C. bitorquatus [=Rhinoptilus bitorquatus] H66
          |    |--C. cinctus (Heuglin 1864) [=Hemerodromus cinctus] H66
          |    |--C. coromandelicus [incl. C. asiaticus, C. frenatus, Tachydromus orientalis] H66
          |    |--C. cursor JT12
          |    |--C. gallicus [incl. C. europaeus, C. isabellinus] H66
          |    |--C. rufus Gould 1836 [incl. Tachydromus burchelli] H66
          |    |--C. senegalensis [incl. Tachydromus temminckii] H66
          |    |--C. somalensis JT12
          |    `--C. temminckii JT12 [=Chalcopterus temminckii H66]
          `--Glareola Brisson 1760 BKB15, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
               |  i. s.: G. cinerea JT12
               |         G. lactea JT12
               |         G. neogena Ballmann 1979 M02
               |         G. ocularis JT12
               |--+--G. nuchalis JT12
               |  `--G. isabella Vieillot 1816 CC10 (see below for synonymy)
               `--+--G. maldivarum Forster 1795 JT12, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
                  `--+--G. nordmanni JT12
                     `--*G. pratincola (Linnaeus 1766) CC10, JT12, S05 [=Hirundo pratincola CC10]
                          |--G. p. pratincola [incl. G. limbata Rüppell 1845] S05
                          `--G. p. fuelleborni S05

Cursorius bicinctus [=Rhinoptilus bicinctus, incl. C. africanus Temm. 1807, Tachydromus collaris, Charadrius grallator] H66

Glareola Brisson 1760 BKB15, CC10 [incl. Stiltia Gray 1855 CC10, Trachelia Scolopi 1769 B94; Glareolinae, Tracheliinae]

Glareola isabella Vieillot 1816 CC10 [=*Stiltia isabella CC10, JT12; incl. G. grallaria Temminck 1820 CC10]

Glareola maldivarum Forster 1795 JT12, CC10 [=G. (Pratincola) maldivarum CC10; incl. G. orientalis Leach 1821 CC10, G. maldivarum orientalis CC10, G. pratincola parryi Mathews 1917 WS48]

Rhinoptilus chalcopterus BKB15 [=Cursorius chalcopterus H66, Tachydromus chalcopterus H66; incl. Cursorius superciliaris Heugl. 1865 H66]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B94] Bock, W. J. 1994. History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 222: 1–281.

[BKB15] Burleigh, J. G., R. T. Kimball & E. L. Braun. 2015. Building the avian tree of life using a large-scale, sparse supermatrix. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 84: 53–63.

[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4^th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.

[H66] Hartlaub, G. 1866. Synopsis of the genus Cursorius. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1866: 61–62.

[JT12] Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. Ø. Mooers. 2012. The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491: 444–448.

[M05] Mayr, G. 2005. The Paleogene fossil record of birds in Europe. Biological Reviews 80: 515–542.

[M09] Mayr, G. 2009. Paleogene Fossil Birds. Springer.

[M02] Mlíkovský, J. 2002. Cenozoic Birds of the World. Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press: Praha.

[S05] Steinheimer, F. D. 2005. Eduard Rüppel’s avian types at the Natural History Museum, Tring (Aves). Senckenbergiana Biologica 85 (2): 233–264.

[U93] Unwin, D. M. 1993. Aves. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 717–737. Chapman & Hall: London.

[WS48] Whittell, H. M., & D. L. Serventy. 1948. A systematic list of the birds of Western Australia. Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Special Publication 1: 1–126.

Last updated: 15 August 2019.