Family: GLAREOLIDAE (Brehm 1831)
Genera: There are five genera in this family, three are coursers Cursorius, Smutsornis and Rhinoptilus and two are pratincoles Stiltia and Glareola.
Cursorius – Latin; cursorius courier, runner (currere to run) (Latham 1790).
Rhinoptilus – Greek; rhis nostrils; ptilon feather (Strickland 1852).
Stiltia – Middle English stilte stilts.(Gray, G. 1855).
Glareola – Latin; diminutive of glarea gravel (Brisson 1760).
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.
Subfamily Cursoriinae
∗ C. c. cursor (Latham 1787)
∗ C. c. bogolubovi (Zarudny 1885)
∗ C. c. exsul (Hartert 1920)
∗ C. s. somalensis (Shelley 1885)
∗ C. s. littoralis (Erlanger 1905)
∗ C. t. temminckii (Swainson 1822)
∗ C. t. ruvanensis (Mádarasz 1915)
∗ C. t. aridus (Clancey 1989)
- Indian Courser C. coromandelicus (Gmelin 1789)
- Double-banded Courser Rhinoptilus 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. erlangeri (Niethammer & Wolters 1966)
∗ R. a. granti (Sclater, W. 1921)
∗ R. c. cinctus (Heuglin 1863)
∗ R. c. emini (Sclater, P. 1857)
∗ R. c. seebohmi (Sharpe 1893)
∗ R. c. mayaudi (Érard, Hémery & Pasquet 1993)
Subfamily Glareolinae
- Australian Pratincole Stiltia isabella (Vieillot 1816)
- Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola (Linnaeus 1766)
- Oriental Pratincole Glareola maldivarum (Forster 1795)
- Black-winged Pratincole Glareola nordmanni (Fischer 1842)
- Madagascan Pratincole Glareola ocularis (Verreaux 1833)
- Rock Pratincole Glareola nuchalis (Gray, G. 1849)
∗ G. n. nuchalis (Gray, G. 1849)
∗ G. n. liberiae (Schlegel 1881)
- Some authorities have subsumed all coursers into Cursorius..
- Somali Courser was formerly considered to be two subspecies within Cream-coloured Courser.
- Smutsornis Roberts 1922 originally included in Cursorius and sometimes monotypic now subsumed into Rhinoptilus; also has been placed in Hemerodromus.
- 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).
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
Coursers genus Cursorius

Coursers genus Rhinoptilus
Pratincoles genus Stiltia
