TheCoraciiformes/kɒrəˈsaɪ.ɪfɔːrmiːz/ are a group of usually colourfulbirds including thekingfishers, thebee-eaters, therollers, themotmots, and thetodies. They generally havesyndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base), though in many kingfishers one of these is missing.[citation needed] The members of this order are linked by their "slamming" behaviour, thrashing their prey onto surfaces to disarm or incapacitate them.[1]
This is largely anOld Worldorder, with the representation in theNew World limited to the dozen or so species oftodies andmotmots, and a mere handful of the more than a hundred species of kingfishers.
The name Coraciiformes means "raven-like". Specifically, it comes from theLatin language "corax", meaning "raven" and Latin "forma", meaning "form".[3]
The phylogenetic relationships between the six families in the order Coraciiformes is shown below. The cladogram is based on a large study byRichard Prum and colleagues published in 2015.[4] The number of species in each family is taken from the list maintained byFrank Gill,Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of theInternational Ornithological Committee (IOC).[5]
Several extinct coraciiform families are only known fromPaleogenefossils. They probably belong to the basal group and are sometimes difficult to assign because they were even closer still to the Piciformes (see alsoNeanis). In addition, there are some prehistoricgenera which are likewise difficult to place into a family. At least theEocoraciidae are very basal, but the LateEocene (some 35 mya)Geranopteridae form asuperfamilyCoracioidea with the extant rollers and ground-rollers already (Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré 2000). A few prehistorictaxa of the present-day families have been described; see the family articles for details.
TheLeptosomidae (cuckoo roller) probably do not belong here. Thetrogons are sometimes placed here as a family Trogonidae. The Late EocenePalaeospizidae are sometimes also placed in the Coraciiformes, as are the Early to Middle EocenePrimobucconidae and the Middle Eocene to Early OligoceneSylphornithidae. The Primobucconidae at least indeed seem to belong here.
Mayr, Gerald & Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile (2000): Rollers (Aves: Coraciiformes. s.s.) from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Germany) and the Upper Eocene of the Quercy (France).J. Vertebr. Paleontol.20(3): 533–546.DOI:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0533:RACSSF]2.0.CO;2PDF fulltext
Terres, John K. (1980) The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds.ISBN0-394-46651-9
