Charadrius

Charadrius is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. The name derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios, a bird found in river valleys (from kharadra, "ravine"). Some believed that seeing it cured jaundice.[1]

Charadrius
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Charadriidae
Subfamily: Charadriinae
Genus: Charadrius
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Charadrius hiaticula
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

See text

Synonyms

Aegialites / Aegialitis

They are found throughout the world.

Many Charadrius species are characterised by breast bands or collars. These can be (in the adult) complete bands (ringed, semipalmated, little ringed, long-billed), double or triple bands (killdeer, three-banded, Forbes', two-banded, double-banded) or partial collars (Kentish, piping, snowy, Malaysian, Javan, red-capped, puna).

They have relatively short bills and feed mainly on insects, worms or other invertebrates, depending on habitat, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups. They hunt by sight, rather than by feel as do longer-billed waders like snipe.

Species of the genus Aegialites (or Aegialitis) are now subsumed within Charadrius.

Species in taxonomic order

In December 2020, it was described in a paper that the Kentish plover subspecies C.a.seebohmi may be a new species, the Hanuman plover.

References
  1. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.