Rhinoptilus

Rhinoptilus
Three-banded courser (Rhinoptilus cinctus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Glareolidae
Subfamily: Cursoriinae
Genus: Rhinoptilus
Strickland, 1852
Type species
Cursorius chalcopterus[1]
Temminck, 1824
Species

R. cinctus
R. chalcopterus
R. bitorquatus

Rhinoptilus is a genus of coursers, a group of wading birds. There are three species, which breed in Africa and South Asia. They have long legs, short wings and long pointed bills which curve downwards. Although classed as waders, they inhabit deserts and similar arid regions. Like the pratincoles, the coursers are found in warmer parts of the Old World. They hunt insects by sight, pursuing them on foot.[2]

Species in the genus have earlier been placed under other genus names including Macrotarsius (Blyth), Chalcopterus (Reich.) and Hemerodromus (Heuglin). Some characteristics of this largely African genus include a bill that is shorter and stouter than in Cursorius, the orbits are feathered and the 2nd and 3rd primaries nearly equal and the longest. The tarsus is long and scutellate, the feet are short and the outer toe is joined by partial webbing.[3]

Their 2–3 eggs are laid on the ground.

Species

The genus contains three species:[4]

  • Bronze-winged courser, Rhinoptilus chalcopterus – open woodland of sub-Saharan Africa
  • Jerdon's courser, Rhinoptilus bitorquatus – tropical scrub jungle of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh (east-central India); extremely rare
  • Three-banded courser, Rhinoptilus cinctus – tropical bushland and open woodland of northeast to central south Africa

The double-banded courser was formerly included in this genus but is now the only species placed in the genus Smutsornis.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Glareolidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  2. ^ Hayman, Marchant and Prater (1986) Shorebirds ISBN 0-395-37903-2
  3. ^ Jerdon, T. C. (1864) The Birds of India. Volume 3. p. 628
  4. ^ a b AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 7 November 2025.

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