Coracias
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Coracias is a genus of the rollers, an Old World family of birds related to the kingfishers and bee-eaters. They share the colourful appearance of those groups, blues and browns predominating. The two outer front toes are connected, but not the inner one.
Taxonomy
The genus Coracias was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek korakías (κορακίας), derived from korax (κόραξ, ‘raven, crow’). Aristotle described the coracias as a bird as big as a crow with a red beak, which some believe to be the chough. The type species was designated as the European roller (Coracias garrulus) by George Robert Gray in 1855.
The phylogenetic relationships among the Coracias species are shown below, from the molecular study by Johansson et al. (2018)
Species
Nine species are recognized:
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purple roller | Coracias naevius (Daudin, 1800) Two subspecies C. n. naevius – Daudin, 1800C. n. mosambicus – Dresser, 1890 | sub-Saharan Africa | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Indian roller | Coracias benghalensis (Linnaeus, 1758) Two subspecies C. b. benghalensis (Linnaeus, 1758)C. b. indicus Linnaeus, 1766 | Western Asia to Indian Subcontinent | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Indochinese roller | Coracias affinis Horsfield, 1840 | eastern India to southeast Asia | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Purple-winged roller | Coracias temminckii (Vieillot, 1819) | Islands of Sulawesi, Bangka, Lembeh, Manterawu, Muna and Butung | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Racket-tailed roller | Coracias spatulatus Trimen, 1880 | southern Africa from Angola, south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Tanzania to northern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Lilac-breasted roller | Coracias caudatus Linnaeus, 1766 Two subspecies C. c. caudatus Linnaeus, 1766C. c. lorti Shelley, 1885 | sub-Saharan Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Abyssinian roller | Coracias abyssinicus (Hermann, 1783) | tropical Africa in a belt south of the Sahara, known as the Sahel | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| European roller | Coracias garrulus (Linnaeus, 1758) Two subspecies C. g. garrulus - Linnaeus, 1758C. g. semenowi - Loudon & Tschusi, 1902 | Middle East, Central Asia, Mediterranean and eastern Europe. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Blue-bellied roller | Coracias cyanogaster Cuvier, 1816 | Senegal to northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
Fossil species
Former species
Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Coracias:
- Olive-backed oriole (as Coracias sagittata)
- Eurasian golden oriole (as Coracias oriolus)
- Black-hooded oriole (as Coracias xanthornus)
- Broad-billed roller (as Coracias glaucurus)
- Broad-billed roller (afer) (as Coracias afra)
- Oriental dollarbird (as Coracias orientalis)
- Australian roller (as Coracias pacifica)
Behaviour and ecology
Coracias rollers are watch-and wait hunters. They sit in a tree or on a post before descending on their prey and carrying it back in the beak to a perch before dismembering it. A wide range of terrestrial invertebrates, and small vertebrates such as frogs, lizards rodents and young birds, are taken. Their prey includes items avoided by many other birds, such as hairy caterpillars, insects with warning colouration and snakes. They often perch prominently whilst hunting, like giant shrikes.
External links
- on the Internet Bird Collection