Indian Courser
Cursorius coromandelicus
Elegant and stately large plover-like bird. Note typically erect posture, strong black-and-white brow pattern, orange-suffused crown and chest, and slightly downcurved dark bill. Cream-colored Courser is much paler and more uniformly colored. Indian Courser inhabits dry open spaces, including rocky plains and arid areas with scattered scrubs. Gathers in small flocks outside of the breeding season.
Identification
This courser is widespread in South Asia and overlaps with some other species such as the similar looking cream-colored courser. This species is however brighter coloured than the cream-coloured courser and has a broader black eye-stripe that begins at the base of the beak. The crown is chestnut and the breast is rufous. The nape has a dark black patch where the long longer feathers forming the white stripe meet. In flight, the rump appears white and the wing tip is not as contrastingly black as in the cream-coloured courser. The sexes are alike.<p>The long legs are whitish and as in other coursers have only three forward pointing toes.<p>The species is closely related to other coursers in the region and are considered to form a superspecies with Cursorius cursor, Cursorius rufus and Cursorius temminckii.
Taxonomy
The Indian courser was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius coromandelicus. Gmelin based his description on the "Coromandel plover" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham in turn based his own description on a hand-coloured print that accompanied Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux . The Indian courser is now placed in the genus Cursorius that was introduced by Latham in 1790. The genus name is from Latin cursor meaning "runner", from currere, "to run". The specific epithet is from the Coromandel Coast of India, the type locality. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Cursorius coromandelicus
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Glareolidae
- Genus
- Cursorius
Range and habitat
This species occurs in dry stony, scrubby or rocky country but rarely on sandy terrain from the Indus valley east short of Bangladesh and south to the tip of Peninsular India. It sometimes occurs in the dry zone of northern Sri Lanka. The wet forest zones are avoided. In southern India, the drier zone on the east coast, the Coromandel region, where it is not uncommon gives it the species name. It is also found patchily distributed in other parts of the peninsula. Other areas where they are commonly seen include the Deccan plateau and the arid regions of northwestern India in Rajasthan and Gujarat. It is resident in some areas but makes local movements.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
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