Curlew-like

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Curlew-like
Racing bird (Cursorius cursor)

Racing bird ( Cursorius cursor )

Systematics
Superclass : Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata)
Row : Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Plover-like (Charadriiformes)
Family : Curlew-like
Scientific name
Glareolidae
Brehm , 1831

The curlew-like (Glareolidae) are a bird family from the order of the plover-like (Charadriiformes).

features

Curlews are usually brownish, beige or gray in color, often with camouflaging speckled patterns and blackish stripes. The head is small and relatively flat on top. The beak is short and curved. But that is where the external similarities end. Because of the significant differences, the characteristics are detailed in the articles Curlews and Racing Birds .

Way of life

Racing birds like insects , snails and lizards always look for food on the ground, while curlews catch insects in the air with their broad beak. However, they also do not disdain any prey that can be easily reached from the ground. All species are ground-brooders, the young are refuge.

distribution and habitat

This family is limited to the warmer areas of the Old World. The birds arrive in southern Europe, southern and central Asia , in Africa south of the Sahara in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and in Australia before. Racing birds inhabit arid areas such as steppes. Curlews are tied to the insects that live on the water and are therefore not found far from them. Curlews are migratory birds, racing birds are mostly resident birds.

Systematics

The family belongs to the plover-like (Charadriiformes) and there to the subordination Lari. Sister group of Brachschwalbe-like is the Reiherläufer ( Dromas ardeola (family Dromadidae)) and the clade constituted by two is the sister group to the other members of the Lari, with the exception of the basal Laufhühnchen (Turnicidae).

The curlew-like include two outwardly completely different types of birds , the racing birds , which mainly stay on the ground, and the curlew , which are agile fliers. Both groups originally had the rank of subfamilies within the curlew-like species. Since the racing bird genus Rhinoptilus is in a sister group relationship to all other genus of the curlew swallow-like, at least the racing bird subfamily is paraphyletic . The subfamilies are therefore not listed in the systematics according to Winkler and colleagues given below. There are five genera with a total of 17 species:

The crocodile guardian was traditionally counted among the racing birds, but is now part of the Pluvianidae, a monotypical family of its own.

literature

  • Bernhard Grzimek: Grzimeks animal life. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co.KG, Munich 1968, ISBN 3-423-05970-2 .
  • Theo Jahn: Brehm's new animal encyclopedia. Verlag Herder KG, Freiburg im Breisgau Special edition for Prisma Verlag GmbH, Gütersloh 1982, ISBN 3-570-08606-2 .
  • Josep del Hoyo et al .: Handbook of the Birds of the World. (HBW), Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 1996, ISBN 8487334202 .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c David W. Winkler, Shawn M. Billerman, Irby J. Lovette: Bird Families of the World: A Guide to the Spectacular Diversity of Birds. Lynx Edicions (2015), ISBN 978-8494189203 . Page 147–148.
  2. ↑ Sergio L. Pereira and Allan J. Baker: The enigmatic monotypic crab plover Dromas ardeola is closely related to pratincoles and coursers (Aves, Charadriiformes, Glareolidae). Genet Mol Biol. 2010 Jul-Sep; 33 (3): 583-586. doi: 10.1590 / S1415-47572010000300033

Web links

Commons : Glareolidae  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files