Eurystomus

Eurystomus
Dollarbird at San Diego Zoo
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Coraciidae
Genus: Eurystomus
Vieillot, 1816
Species

See text.

Eurystomus is a genus of roller, one of the two genera in that family of birds. The name means ‘broad mouth’, from the Greek eurus (εὐρύς, ‘broad, wide’) and stoma (στόμα, ‘mouth’).[1]

It contains four broad-billed species, which breed in Africa, Asia and Australasia. Two species are restricted to Africa, one of which, the cinnamon roller, is migratory. The dollarbird has a large distribution ranging from India to Japan and Australia. It too is migratory over the northern and southern extremes of its range. The final species, the azure roller, is endemic to Moluccas in Indonesia. In general they are open country foragers, occurring in woodland, savanna and farmland. Two species, the azure roller and the cinnamon roller are associated with rainforests but nevertheless require open areas in which to forage.

The Eurystomus vary from the other genus of rollers, Coracias in having proportionally longer wings and shorter legs. These morphological differences reflect differences in foraging technique, whereas Coracias rollers forage from a fixed perch and take prey by swooping down onto it on the ground, the faster and more agile Eurystomus rollers catch their prey on the wing. Unlike the Coracias they do not perform the "rolling" display which gives the family its common name.[2]

Species

References

  1. ↑ William Somerville Orr (1855). Orr's circle of the sciences: a series of treatises on the principles of science, with their application to practical pursuits. p. 517.
  2. ↑ Fry, C (2001), "Family Coraciidae (Rollers)", in del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi, Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 6, Mousebirds to Hornbills, Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, pp. 342–369, ISBN 978-84-87334-30-6
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