Coracias

"Galgulus" redirects here. The genus name Galgulus was also invalidly given to a toad bug genus (now Gelastocoris) by Latreille c. 1802, to the rockfowl (now Picathartes) by Wagler in 1827, and to the brown-eared bulbul (Microscelis amaurotis) by Kittlitz in 1832..
Coracias
Adult European roller
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Coraciidae
Genus: Coracias
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

8, see text

Synonyms

Galgulus Brisson, 1760

Coracias is a genus of the rollers, an Old World family of near passerine 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.

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, is taken. Their prey includes items avoided by many other birds, such as hairy caterpillars, insects with warning colouration and snakes.[1] They often perch prominently whilst hunting, like giant shrikes.

The name is from the Ancient Greek korakías (κορακίας),[2] derived from korax (κόραξ, ‘raven, crow’).[3] Aristotle described the coracias as a bird as big as a crow but has a red beak,[4] which some believe to be the chough.[5]

The species in taxonomic order are:

References

  1. ↑ Fry, C. H.; Fry, K. (30 June 2010). Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-1408134573. OCLC 25547477.
  2. ↑ André Jean François Marie Brochant de Villers; Alexandre Brongniart; Pierre Jean François Turpin (1818). Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles (in French). Levrault. p. 349.
  3. ↑ Craig, John (1854). A New Universal, Technological, Etymological, and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. p. 407.
  4. ↑ Camus, Armand-Gaston (1783). Histoire des animaux d'Aristote (in French). Chez la veuve Desaint. p. 225.
  5. ↑ Greek Word Study Tool

External links

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