''Coracias'' is a
genus of the
rollers, an
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
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.
Taxonomy
The
genus ''Coracias'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus in the
tenth edition of his ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
''. The genus name is from
Ancient Greek ''korakías'' (), derived from ''korax'' (, ‘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 species were determined in a molecular study published in 2018.
Species
Nine
species are recognized:
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
The Oriental dollarbird (''Eurystomus orientalis'') is a bird of the roller family, so named because of the distinctive pale blue or white, coin-shaped spots on its wings. It can be found from Australia to Korea, Japan and India.
Taxonomy
The Or ...
(as ''Coracias orientalis'')
*
Australian roller
The Oriental dollarbird (''Eurystomus orientalis'') is a bird of the roller family, so named because of the distinctive pale blue or white, coin-shaped spots on its wings. It can be found from Australia to Korea, Japan and India.
Taxonomy
The Or ...
(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
shrike
Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera.
The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also know ...
s.
References
External links
Roller videoson the Internet Bird Collection
{{Taxonbar, from=Q44617
Coraciidae
Bird genera
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus