Coursers and Pratincoles

Tropical regions in old world, absent from the Americas.

• Europe: Collared Pratincole and Black-winged Pratincole.
• Africa: Cream-coloured Courser, Somali Courser, Burchell’s Courser, Temminck’s Courser, Double-banded Courser, Three-banded Courser, Bronze-winged Courser, Collared Pratincole and Black-winged Pratincole. Madagascar Pratincole, Rock Pratincole and Grey Pratincole.
• Asia: Cream-coloured Courser, Indian Courser, Jerdon’s Courser, Collared Pratincole, Oriental Pratincole and Small Pratincole.
• Australasia: Australian Pratincole and Oriental Pratincole.

Seventeen species comprising nine coursers and eight pratincoles.

Subfamily Cursoriinae

• Cream-coloured Courser Cursorius cursor (‘Charadrius cursor’ Latham 1787)

∗ C. c. cursor (Latham 1787)
∗ C. c. bogolubovi (Zarundy 1885)
∗ C. c. exsul (Hartert 1920)

• Somali Courser C. somalensis (‘Cursorius gallicus somalensis’ Shelley 1885)

∗ C. s. somalensis (Shelley 1885)
∗ C. s. littoralis (Erlanger 1905)

• Burchell’s Courser C. rufus (Gould 1837)
• Temminck’s Courser C. temminckii (‘Cursorius Temminckii’ Swainson 1822)

∗ C. t. temminckii (Swainson 1822)
∗ C. t. ruvanensisi (Mádarasz 1915)
∗ C. t. aridus (Clancey 1989)

• Indian Courser C. coromandelicus (‘Charadrius coromandelicus’ Gmelin 1789)
• Double-banded Courser Rhinoptilus africanus (‘Cursorius africanus’ Temminck 1807)

∗ R. a. africanus (Temminck 1807)
∗ R. a. raffertyi (Mearns 1915)
∗ R. a. hartingi (Sharpe 1893)
∗ R. a. gracilis (Fischer & Reichenow 1884)
∗ R. a. bisignatus (Hartlaub 1865)
∗ R. a. traylori (Irwin 1963)
∗ R. a. sharpei (Erlanger 1905)
∗ R. a. granti (W. L. Sclater1921)

• Three-banded Courser Rhinoptilus cinctus (‘Hemerodromus cinctus’ Heuglin 1863)

∗ R. c. cinctus (Heuglin 1863)
∗ R. c. emini (P. L. Sclater 1857)
∗ R. c. seebohmi (Sharpe 1893)

• Bronze-winged Courser R. chalcopterus (‘Cursorius chalcopterus’ Temminck 1824)
• Jerdon’s Courser R. bitorquatus (‘Macrotarius [sic] bitorquatus’ Blyth 1848)

Subfamily Glareolinae

• Australian Pratincole Stiltia isabella (‘Glareola isabella Vieillot 1816)
• Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola (‘Hirundo Pratincola’ Linnaeus 1766)
• Oriental Pratincole Glareola maldivarum (‘Glareola (Pratincola) maldivarum’ J. R. Forster 1795)
• Black-winged Pratincole Glareola nordmanni (‘Glareola Nordmanni’ Fischer 1842)
• Madagascan Pratincole Glareola ocularis (J. Verreaux 1833)
• Rock Pratincole Glareola nuchalis (G. R. Gray 1849)

∗ G. n. nuchalis (G. R. Gray 1849)
∗ G. n. liberiae (Schlegel 1881)

• Grey Pratincole Glareola cinerea (Fraser 1843)
• Small Pratincole Glareola lactea (Temminck 1820)

• Some authorities have subsumed all coursers into Cursorius..
• Somali Courser was formerly considered to be two subspecies within Cream-coloured Courser.
• Smutsornis originally included in Cursorius and sometimes monotypic now subsumed into Rhinoptilus; also has been placed in Hemerodromus.

Extant:

• Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola Middle Pleistocene of France.

Extinct:

• Boutersemia belgica (Mayr and Smith 2001) Early Oligocene of Belgium.
• Boutersemia parvula (Mayr and Smith 2001) Early Oligocene of Belgium.
• Paractiornis perpusillus (Wetmore, 1930) Early Miocene of Nebraska.
• Mioglareola dolnicensis (Švec, 1980) Early Miocene of the Czech Republic.
• Mioglareola gregaria (Ballmann, 1979) Early Miocene of the Czech Republic and Middle Miocene of Germany.
• Glareola neogena (Ballmann, 1979) Middle Miocene of Germany.
• “Gallinago” veterior (Jánossy, 1979) Early Pliocene of Hungary.
• G. †Boutersemia (Mayr and Smith 2001).
• †Boutersemia belgica (Mayr and Smith 2001).
• †Boutersemia parvula (Mayr and Smith 2001).

BirdLife International: IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/03/2020
del Hoyo, Josep, Andrew Elliot & Jordi Sargatal: Handbook of the Birds of the World – Vol. 3 (1996)
Hayman, Peter, John Marchant & Tony Prater: Shorebirds – An identification guide to the waders of the world (1986)
Jobling, James A.: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (2010)
Seebohm, Henry: The Geographical Distribution of the Family Charadriidae, or, The Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and Their Allies (1888)
Wikipedia: List of fossil bird genera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fossil_bird_genera#Charadriiformes