Bronze-winged Courser
Rhinoptilus chalcopterus
Large courser with dark brown upperparts and a white belly. In flight, shows a dark upperwing and a black-and-white underwing. Found in savannah and woodland, including miombo and Guinea savanna. A nocturnal species, it spends the day roosting under a thick bush. Calls at night with a haunting, slurred “chee-yaaaa-oo.” This is the courser that is most similar to a lapwing, but its shape is different: taller and with longer legs, and the details of the head and breast pattern don’t match those of any lapwing.
Identification
The bronze-winged courser is a species of small wading birds with long legs and short wings. The bronze-winged courser is the largest of the coursers, with a body length of 25-29 centimeters, a wingspan up to 58 centimeters, and body weight between 91 and 220 grams.<p>The bronze-winged courser can be recognized by its characteristic head markings and overall coloration. The adult plumage differs from the juvenile plumage in this species. Mature adults have a dull grey-brown upper breast and back. The upper tail is white, while the remainder of the tail is dark brown and bordered with white. The breast features a thin black band that separates the brownish-grey upper chest from the buffy lower breast and belly. The head has distinct cream-white supercilium, forecrown, and posterior eyeline, as well as buffy upper neck and throat. The facial lores and ear-coverts are darker brown-black. The underwing coverts are white, contrasting with the dark black primaries which are tipped with iridescent copper to violet coloration. These copper wingtips are visible exclusively during flight–denoting the bird's common name the "bronze-winged courser". The bill is long and curved slightly downward, and appears black with a reddish-purple base. The eyes are large on the head, featuring a bright reddish-purple eye ring. The long legs are red in color.<p>The adult bronze-winged courser in flight may be visually confused with another group that is similar in appearance–the lapwings. Both have comparable underpart coloration and body size.<p>The juvenile bronze-winged courser sports a less vibrant plumage pattern in contrast to the adults. The upper feathers of the body are cream-yellow at the ends, and the breast features an even thinner dark band. Chicks of this species are speckled in appearance, looking almost like sandy burnt vegetation.
Taxonomy
The bronze-winged courser (Rhinoptilus chalcopterus) is a species of courser within the family Glareolidae. The coursers are a part of the order Charadriiformes in the class Aves. This species has no classified subspecies.
- Scientific name
- Rhinoptilus chalcopterus
- Authority
- (Temminck, 1824)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Glareolidae
- Genus
- Rhinoptilus
Range and habitat
The bronze-winged courser is found in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, and can be found residing in different areas of the continent according to season. It is thought that the bronze-winged courser spends its breeding season in the southern parts of its range, and migrates north after breeding. The breeding season spans from July to December.<p>Historical records show the bronze-winged courser present in many localities at various times through the year, including but not limited to: Eritrea, Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gambia, and more recently Ethiopia.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
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