coraciiform

coraciiform [kôr΄ə sī′ə fôrm΄]

adj.

〚< ModL Coracii, name of the suborder < Gr korax,RAVEN¹ + -FORM〛

of or belonging to an order (Coraciiformes) of birds with a strong, sharp bill, fused front toes, and usually bright coloration, as the kingfishers, bee eaters, and hornbills

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▪ bird

Introduction

  any member of an order made up of 10 families of birds (bird) that include the kingfishers (kingfisher), todies (tody), motmots (motmot), bee-eaters (bee-eater), rollers (roller), hoopoes (hoopoe), and hornbills (hornbill). Among the members of the order that have attracted special attention are certain kingfishers that plunge headfirst into water for fish and are associated with Classical mythology; according to the ancient Greeks, Ceyx and his wife Alcyone were shipwrecked at Delphi and were changed into kingfishers. The Chinese used the shining blue feathers (feather) of some types of kingfishers to decorate picture screens. Bee-eaters (Meropidae) have been accused of preying on commercially valuable honeybees, and the North American belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) is sometimes considered a pest at fish hatcheries because it preys on young game fish. The kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) has a loud, laughing, or braying voice that is commonly associated with the Australian outback, or backcountry. To the biologist, the practice of sealing the female of certain species of hornbills in her nest during incubation and brooding is one of the most intriguing behavioral modifications among birds (bird).

General features

      The rollerlike (roller) birds (bird) are active by day (diurnal) and range in length from the size of a small sparrow (about 10 cm, or 4 inches) to about 160 cm (about 63 inches). They have compact bodies, short to moderately long necks, large heads, rather long bills, small feet, and ample wings (wing). The tail varies from short to very long and may be forked, square, or graduated; the outer or central tail feathers (feather) are, in some species, pointed or spatulate at the tip. All these birds regularly perch in trees, where some feed; others fly in search of food, and a few walk or hop on the ground. The group's food ranges from invertebrates (including insects) and small vertebrates to berries and fruit.

Distribution

      Collectively, the 10 families of the order are almost worldwide in distribution in temperate and tropical areas, with the greatest number and diversity in the warmer parts of the African, southern Asian, and Papuan areas. Many species are common and conspicuous, and a few tolerate human settlement, although their direct importance to man is minimal.

      Only the kingfishers (kingfisher) (family Alcedinidae) are found in both the Eastern and the Western Hemisphere. The motmots (motmot) (Momotidae) and todies (tody) (Todidae) are restricted to the New World tropics, the bee-eaters (bee-eater) (Meropidae), rollers (Coraciidae), and the hoopoes (hoopoe) (Upupidae) to temperate and tropical regions of the Old World, and the hornbills (hornbill) (Bucerotidae) to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The wood hoopoes (wood hoopoe) (Phoeniculidae) are found only in tropical and subtropical Africa; the cuckoo roller (Leptosomatidae) and the ground rollers (ground roller) (Brachypteraciidae) are found only on Madagascar.

Natural history

Life history

      Most species live permanently in one region, but temperate-zone species move nearer the tropics for the winter. In the Old World tropics that have a dry-wet seasonal change, local movements of bee-eaters (bee-eater) sometimes take advantage of the related crops of insects. In East Africa, where there are two dry and two wet seasons, two periods of breeding may occur each year; however, the picture is not clear.

      As a group, these birds (bird) are well endowed with voices, but their vocalizations are usually referred to as calls rather than songs. Some are harsh; others are soft or are whistled or hissed. Some are given as single notes, others as series in a trill, a rattle, or a hooting, and still others as a cacophony or medley of notes. Some calls are given from perches; others are given on the wing. Certain utterances may be related to courtship and mating or to territory; others seem to be simply a part of the bird's general daily activity. Pairs are formed to the accompaniment of simple posturing displays and series of calls, ranging from harsh to soft. Certain rollers (roller) use tumbling display flights. Both sexes usually share in the nest duties.

      Many rollerlike birds are solitary in feeding and nesting (nest), but some bee-eaters are gregarious and also nest in colonies. Hornbills (hornbill) and wood hoopoes (wood hoopoe) move about in small parties most of the year, but they nest solitarily. The nest site is always in a cavity, which may be a hole or crevice in a tree, a bank, or a wall. The cavity may be among rocks or be a tunnel dug by the birds in the ground, or it can be an abandoned termite nest.

      Normally, little or no nest material is added, except by the hoopoe (Upupa epops). In some (perhaps most) hornbills, however, the female enters the nest cavity before laying starts; the male brings mud and debris, which the female takes and plasters around the entrance until only a slit is left. The male passes food to the female through the slit until after the young are more or less grown. At that time she breaks out of the nest, and then both parents feed the young.

      The members of the order lay two to nine eggs, the tropical species laying the smaller clutches. Among the hornbills the larger species lay fewer eggs than do some smaller ones. The eggs are usually white but, in the hoopoe, may be olive, brownish, bluish, or greenish and are sometimes spotted. incubation is performed by both male and female in kingfishers (kingfisher), todies (tody), motmots (motmot), and bee-eaters and by the female alone in the hoopoe and hornbills when she is fed by the male. Incubation periods of 18 to 22 days have been recorded for some of the smaller members of the order.

      The young are nidicolous (dependent upon the parents) and are naked, except for the hoopoe and some kingfishers that have varying amounts of down at birth. The recorded nestling period (25 to 28 days) of certain of the smaller species is only slightly longer than the incubation period, but large species have longer nestling periods, and the great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) has a total period (incubation to fledging) of three to four months. Except for the hoopoe and the walled-in hornbills, the young are fed by both parents. The male of these species brings food to the female, who passes it on to the young. The rate of feeding the young is apparently variable. In large species of hornbills, the male is recorded as making one trip per hour to the nest, during which he brings a gullet full of fruits and regurgitates them one at a time and passes them to the female. A much smaller species brings one item of animal food and holds it in his bill each trip and makes about six trips per hour.

      Coraciiforms of several groups practice no nest sanitation, and regurgitated insects and other remains accumulate and are used to make a platform on which the young rest in later nest life. Hornbill nests are kept more or less clean, and, in one small species in which the female breaks out of the nest when the young are half grown, the young perform nest sanitation and also help to seal up the nest again after the female emerges.

      When the young leave the nest, they are able to fly and usually are similar to, although sometimes duller or paler than, the adult in plumage. There is believed to be one molt a year, which occurs after the nesting season. In an unusual modification, the female of the African hornbill, walled in during incubation and throughout the nest life of the young, molts during this period, losing and renewing all of her flight feathers (feather).

Locomotion and feeding

      Coraciiform birds tend to perch in trees and shrubs when at rest. Some favour exposed perches on which they are conspicuous, others seek the protection of foliage or the shade of the forest. Lacking cryptic coloration—many are nearly uniform in colour or boldly patterned—they do not rely on concealment for protection. Their flight varies from weak and laboured to strong, well sustained, and direct. The flight of some, such as the rollers, is swift and graceful. Some species, such as the kingfishers, use little bipedal locomotion; others (such as some hornbills) hop, walk, or scramble in the treetops, creep along branches (wood hoopoes), or walk or hop on the ground (hoopoe, other hornbills).

      The food (feeding behaviour) of the rollerlike birds includes a wide variety of organisms. Among the animals taken are worms, snails, crustaceans, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, small birds, and mammals. Vegetable food consists chiefly of the fruits of trees, usually gathered in the trees but sometimes picked up on the ground.

      Some birds of this order seem to choose animal food more for its size than its type, and a single method of feeding tends to predominate in each family. Some families (Upupidae and Leptosomatidae) contain only one species; others are large and predictably diverse—such as the hornbills (Bucerotidae), with 45 species, and the kingfishers (Alcedinidae), with about 90 species. Each family or group of families tends to have a characteristic pattern of feeding behaviour, and the foraging patterns fall into four categories, or feeding niches: (1) watchful waiting on a perch, (2) aerial, spending much time on the wing, (3) searching on foot among branches of trees, and (4) walking on the ground.

      The watchful waiters—the kingfishers, motmots, and todies—tend to sit quietly for long periods. When they see their prey on a leaf, on a branch, on the ground, or even in the water, they take off in swift, direct flight, seize the prey with the bill, and return to the perch. The todies catch more flying insects than do members of the other two families. A few kingfishers plunge headfirst into water from perches or from hovering flight, but these number only a few of the species-rich family Alcedinidae. The shovel-billed kingfisher (Clytoceyx rex) of New Guinea is partly terrestrial and is known to feed on beetles and earthworms; the latter are apparently dug from the soil of the forest floor with the bird's short, heavy bill. The ruddy kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda), widespread in Southeast Asia, eats many large land snails. It seizes a snail with its bill and beats it against a rock until the shell is broken and the meat can be extracted.

      The term temperament, although tinged with human associations, seems applicable to certain traits that are common to many species within a family, as contrasted with members of another group. Kingfishers, motmots, and todies are stolid, phlegmatic birds that sit quietly for varying periods of time between sallies for food. Kingfishers often bob their heads and the forepart of their bodies when nervous or mildly alarmed; when startled into flight, some give sharp calls. Motmots have the habit of moving their tails from side to side.

      Bee-eaters and rollers are aerial feeders but spend much time perched quietly, leaving their perches to make sallies for passing insects. Bee-eaters often spend long periods on the wing, gliding in circles while looking for insects, especially bees and wasps. Some forest bee-eaters perch in foliage and near flowers, securing their prey without flying. Rollers spend more time perched, but they too are graceful in flight and capture much of their food by hawking or by darting down to the ground. Members of both groups are often seen aloft, apparently not feeding but flying for diversion. The cuckoo roller (Leptosomus discolor) also flies above the forest canopy, but it is looking for large insects and small lizards in the outermost foliage. It may either seize them while on the wing or alight to capture them.

      Feeding while clambering among the branches of trees is carried on by many of the larger hornbills and by the small wood hoopoes (wood hoopoe) but in quite different ways. The hornbills fly over or through the forest, their flight strong and often noisy, and, on alighting, scramble or hop among the branches reaching out for fruit, small animals, or both. The wood hoopoes have weak flight, and they do not fly much; they fly chiefly from one tree or clump of trees to the next, climbing about the trunks and branches of trees and lianas in acrobatic poses as they seek insects in crevices and on the bark surface.

      Walking on the ground is the usual mode of feeding for the common hoopoe (Upupa), the ground rollers, and for a few hornbills. The hoopoe walks with quick steps, bobbing its head in time with the steps and pausing to probe with its long bill in the ground and in crevices, in search of large arthropods and small vertebrates. Its flight is strong and direct. When perched, it may quietly flash its long crest open and shut. The ground rollers, most of which are birds of the deep forest, also feed on the ground on food similar to that of the hoopoe. When disturbed, they fly or jump to low perches.

      The ground hornbills (Bucorvus species) exhibit a definite social organization when foraging. Three or four members of a group searching for insects and other small animals on the ground may keep near each other, with the result that prey frightened into activity by one bird may be caught by one of the others. Several other species of hornbills occasionally forage solitarily on the ground.

Habitat selection and ecological diversity

      Coraciiform birds, diverse in their structure and behaviour, occupy a variety of habitats. Each species is restricted in distribution by requirements of feeding and nesting areas. A species may be considered to occupy a feeding and, during the breeding season, a nesting habitat, and these may or may not be contiguous. Some species, such as certain African kingfishers, which nest in cavities excavated in termite mounds and feed on termites and other insects near the nest site, may be said to nest within their feeding habitat. Aerial feeders, such as bee-eaters, which nest in burrows, may be considered to occupy two habitats, one for feeding and one for nesting.

      The factors that influence habitat suitability are evident in a few cases. One bee-eater requires a cut bank (the outside bank of a stream bend) in a grassland area for its burrow, but it must be near a forest because it feeds over the forest and the forest edge. The importance of suitable perches is illustrated by observations made on an insect-rich region of East African grassland, from which kingfishers were absent until a road was built. With the roads came telegraph wires, which provided the perches.

      The widest range of habitats occupied by members of the order Coraciiformes is found in Africa (including Madagascar), where eight of the 10 families are represented. These exhibit all four basic feeding modes, but on Madagascar some niches are occupied by families different from those on the African mainland. Ground feeding in the forest, for example, is limited to the ground rollers in Madagascar; in mainland Africa this niche is occupied by the hoopoe (except in dense forest) and by birds of other orders. The four coraciiform families found in temperate Eurasia occupy only three niches: ground feeding (hoopoe), darting from a perch (kingfishers, some bee-eaters), and aerial hawking (other bee-eaters, rollers). In Australia only the last two niches are occupied by coraciiforms, and these are the same families that hold these niches in Eurasia. In the New World, where three families are found, only one feeding mode is used, that of darting out from a perch. This mode is geographically and ecologically subdivided between the diminutive todies, which are limited to the Greater Antilles where neither the kingfishers nor the motmots are represented, and the kingfishers (with the exception of the pygmy kingfisher, Chloroceryle aenea), which are specialized fish eaters.

Social behaviour (Social behaviour in animals)

      A number of coraciiform birds are markedly social, feeding in small parties and nesting in colonies based on cooperative breeding. Some wood hoopoes forage in conspicuous, noisy bands of 5 to 10 individuals. The acrobatic, climbing activity of a band is sometimes interrupted when the birds of a whole party bow and sway their bodies, pump their tails up and down, and join in a chorus of chattering calls. Moving from tree to tree, one bird follows another in weak undulating flight. Forest species of wood hoopoes are less social, and lone individuals sometimes call while perched high in a tree. Many hornbills may be seen flying through or over the forest, the beats of their broad wings giving a characteristic loud whooshing noise. They are usually found in small parties and actively move about in the branches, sometimes giving conversational notes.

      A study of a young captive hand-reared hornbill of a small species of Lophocerus (Tockus) has provided surprising data. This bird seemed to have a remarkably active, alert, intelligent personality recalling that of captive crows. It greeted its foster parents by raising its wings, pointing its beak upward, raising its head feathers, and chattering. It was jealous of attention given other animals, kept close to its foster parents when out of doors, and alighted on their shoulders. When accompanying them on walks, it flew from tree to tree. It was busy and mischievous, attracted by anything bright, and fond of picking at knots or holes. This young hornbill had a passion for pulling up seedlings and sometimes amused itself by darting in and tweaking the tail of a larger, more lethargic, young Bycanistes hornbill.

Relationships with other species

      Certain types of social behaviour of the Coraciiformes involve other birds or unrelated animals. Although some of these interactions are occasional and opportunistic, others are regular parts of everyday life and may be called symbiotic—that is, one that brings mutual benefit to the different species involved.

      The regular swarming of many bird species about grass fires to capture animals driven out of hiding by the flames is a phenomenon often related to human activity, for such events are often caused accidentally or deliberately by man. Among the birds that gather are both rollers and bee-eaters; they swoop down near the flames and into the smoke to seize fleeing insects. After the fire has passed, certain hornbills find good foraging on foot over the newly exposed ground.

      More notable are a number of interspecific nesting relationships. Some bee-eaters make their colonial burrows in the same banks in which certain smaller swallows dig their burrows; there seems to be no conflict between the larger bee-eaters and the smaller swallows, despite the similarity in nesting and feeding habits. In southern Africa, the little bee-eater (Melittophagus pusillus) sometimes makes its nest burrow in the wall of the very much larger burrow of the aardvark (Orycteropus afer), and there is no further relationship between the bird and the mammal.

      Sporadic incidents occur between species when one or both are foraging; a kingfisher may pilfer a food item from a dipper (Cinclus), and a savanna kingfisher will occasionally fly down to seize a grasshopper flushed by a human. Many associations are more frequent. Some bee-eaters in Africa often accompany large bustards (bustard), other large walking birds, and zebras and other game animals to feed on the insects roused from the grass by the animals. The bee-eater even uses the bustard's back as a perch. The bee-eater may also accompany an automobile driven through these grasslands to secure insects. There is also a regular association between hornbills and bands of monkeys in the treetops of African forests, with the birds seeking the insects stirred into activity by the fruit-eating monkeys.

      In many parts of the Old World tropics, where large arboreal termite mounds are common and conspicuous, certain kingfishers usually excavate their burrows in them; in fact, some species are believed to nest only in them. The presence or absence of the termites might be expected to have an important effect on the populations of such kingfishers. The hoopoe commonly nests near buildings, especially in South Africa, and it is possible that the availability of such sites may affect the local abundance of the species. The presence of woodpecker holes used by hoopoes and wood hoopoes may also affect the size of their breeding populations.

      Some African species of kingfishers, bee-eaters, hoopoes, and wood hoopoes are victimized by obligate social parasites—the honey guides (honey guide) (Indicatoridae, related to the woodpeckers). The honey guide lays its eggs in the host's nest and, with its bill or claws, often punctures the shell of the foster parents' eggs so they do not hatch. If the foster parents' eggs do hatch, the nestling honey guide usually disposes of the host's young by throwing them from the nest or by biting, crowding, or starving them to death. The honey guide's young are thus raised at the expense of the young of the host species. Apparently, kingfishers, bee-eaters, hoopoes, and wood hoopoes are of great importance in the ecology of honey guides, and the frequency with which these rollerlike birds are victimized by honey guides may be a serious factor in their population status.

      A remarkable insect fauna has been found in the nest of an African hornbill. Though some nest sanitation is practiced by the birds, it is not complete. In one nest, more than 400 individual insects, mostly larvae, were found (about half were moth larvae); they represented eight species and were feeding on the droppings and debris in the nest cavity, which was remarkably clean and had little odour. The hornbill provides microhabitats for the insects (albeit scattered and seasonal), and the scavenging of the insects may be of advantage to the hornbill.

Form and function

Size and plumage

  The coraciiform birds (bird) are a rather heterogeneous order, united mainly by features of their internal anatomy. Some characteristics of the beak and feet serve to separate them from other orders, such as perching birds (Passeriformes (passeriform)) and the woodpeckers (woodpecker) and their allies (Piciformes (piciform)), which appear to be their closest relatives.

 No single coraciiform family encompasses the entire size range of the order. The smallest are the todies (tody), with lengths of 9 to about 11.5 cm (3.5 to 4.5 inches), and the largest are the hornbills (hornbill), from about 40 to 160 cm (16 to 63 inches). The kingfishers (kingfisher) are from 10 to nearly 46 cm long (4 to 18 inches), the longest being those with extended tail feathers (feather). Motmots (motmot) and bee-eaters (bee-eater) are in the same general size range as the kingfishers, but the smallest of them are larger than the tiniest kingfishers (Ceyx, Ispidina). In addition, the largest motmots, although about 50 cm (20 inches) long, have not nearly the body bulk of the chunkier but slightly smaller kookaburras (kookaburra) (about 45 cm, or 18 inches). The smaller families have, predictably, less size variation.

      The plumage of the rollerlike (roller) birds is firm and often highly colourful. The bee-eaters are collectively and individually among the most brilliantly coloured of all birds; one individual may be marked with green, yellow, red, blue, and black. Many kingfishers are also brightly coloured, with a tendency toward metallic blues and blue greens. The beak is often bright red or orange. Most hornbills, with ornamentation frequently found on the beak, are strikingly patterned in black, white, and shades of gray and are sometimes accented with rufous or yellow; many have areas of bare skin, blue, red, yellow, or black in colour, around the face.

Morphological specializations

 A few of the external features, such as modifications of the wings (wing) and feet for locomotion and of the beak for food handling, are obviously related to behaviour and habitat. Even in these important aspects of the body plan, the common heritage is evident in such features as the small feet and fusion of the front toes.

      The most obvious adaptation to behaviour is the shape of the wing. The size and shape of the wing correlates well with the type of flight. Aerial feeders have the longest, most pointed wings; the most extreme forms are found in the bee-eaters, but they are also well developed in the rollers and the cuckoo roller. The birds that watch for their prey and fly out after it (such as kingfishers) have moderate, rounded wings, while the ground feeders (such as ground rollers (ground roller) and hoopoes (hoopoe)) and those that feed on foot in the trees (such as hornbills and wood hoopoes (wood hoopoe)) have broad wings.

      The tail is highly diversified in length and shape. Forked tails occur only in the best fliers (bee-eaters and rollers), though some of these birds have square tails or elongated central tail feathers instead. Elongated central tail feathers also occur in the hornbills that practice direct flight and in ground rollers that fly little. The small kingfishers have the shortest tails. The exact shape of the tail does not correlate well with locomotion, nor does the presence of spatulate tips on elongated tail feathers in motmots, rollers, and kingfishers, which are perhaps of social importance.

      The characteristic short tarsus (the lower leg) of the order and the fusion of the three front toes (except in the cuckoo roller) seem a heritage that has been modified but little with modification of behaviour. The foot is used only for perching in most family groups. In cases in which it is used extensively for terrestrial locomotion (ground rollers, hoopoe), the tarsus is lengthened somewhat in the former but not in the latter; the tarsus is also somewhat lengthened in the aberrant hornbill, known as the ground hornbill. The hornbills that feed in the tree branches have a broad pad on the toes, evidently an adaptation for perching. The wood hoopoes have long slender toes with long, sharp, curved claws, an obvious adaptation for the bark-climbing habits of these birds.

      The most unusual foot in the order belongs to the cuckoo roller, whose outer toe is capable of being reversed. This makes a better perching foot for the bird that flies over the forest trees, scanning the branches for its prey and alighting suddenly to seize a caterpillar, chameleon, or grasshopper.

 The bills (beak) show remarkable diversity in bulk and shape. Basically, the long stout bill so common in this order seems to be an adaptation for seizing and subduing active animal prey that is large in proportion to the size of the bird. This is true for rollers, ground rollers, cuckoo rollers, and motmots, all of which have only moderately long and stout bills. The larger, rather stouter, straight bill of the kingfishers is an exaggerated version in birds that often take small invertebrates. The hornbills—with their very large, laterally compressed bills, often ornamented with a prominent horny casque in the male (smaller in the female)—seem to have carried bill size beyond the point of a strictly functional feeding organ. Species that feed largely on fruit plucked from branches as well as species that take lizards and snakes and dig in the ground for insects all have exaggerated bills.

      An advantage of a long bill can be seen in hornbills that feed on fruits among the outer branches of forest trees; the long bill enables the bird to reach fruit on slender, outer twigs. There is also the probability, evidenced by the sexual difference in bill ornamentation, that the bill serves in courtship and perhaps in other social contacts within the small parties characteristic of hornbills.

 Another type of long bill in the order is that of the hoopoes and the wood hoopoes, which is a slender and slightly to strongly downcurved bill. The former use the bill to probe in the ground while walking, the latter to poke into crevices and crannies of the barks and branches of trees.

Similarities to birds of other orders

      The size of the birds of this order and their propensity to take rather large prey bring them into competition with many other species of other groups. It is perhaps instructive to compare certain Old World groups with representatives of different orders in the New World tropics (see above Natural history (coraciiform)). The most striking parallel is seen between the toucans (Rhamphastidae, order Piciformes (piciform)) and the hornbills, which—with their enormous bills, small feet, general diet, behaviour, and appearance—are remarkably alike. A similar degree of convergence is seen between the bee-eaters and the jacamars (jacamar) (Galbulidae, order Piciformes) of tropical America and also between some African wood hoopoes (Rhinopomastes) and American wood hewers (Campylorhamphus). Similar ecological conditions apparently have brought similar adaptations in external structure and behaviour between birds of quite unrelated orders in widely separated areas.

Evolution and paleontology

      Coraciiform birds (bird) probably became the dominant or primary arboreal perching birds in both North America and Eurasia by the early Paleogene Period, about 60 million years ago. The present distribution and abundance of the 10 families suggest an Old World origin, probably in the Ethiopian-Indian region; however, the southern Palaearctic (Eurasia) may also have been involved. A limited number of fossils, made up of the remains of a few hornbills (hornbill) from the Eocene (about 50 million years ago) and Miocene (about 15 million years ago), a roller from the late Eocene (about 38 million years ago), a possible wood hoopoe from the Miocene, and a kingfisher from the early Oligocene, have been found in Europe. At the periphery of the Ethiopian region, the island of Madagascar contains the endemic ground roller and cuckoo roller families, probably derived from separate colonizations of the early roller stock; the island was later colonized by the modern rollers, bee-eaters, kingfishers, and the hoopoe. Extending eastward through southern Eurasia, the modern hoopoe (Upupa epops) reaches Malaysia (making it the most widespread single coraciiform species); the hornbills have reached the Papuan area; and the roller, bee-eater, and kingfisher families have reached the Australian continent.

      In the New World the early arrival of ancestral kingfisher stock via the Bering Strait probably gave rise to the motmots (motmot) of Central and South America and the todies of the West Indies. Both groups were originally more widespread in North America and Europe, where fossil taxa have been found. Later, a specialized fish-eating branch of the kingfishers colonized the New World, evolving one species in the Nearctic region (North America) and several in the Neotropical region.

      Considering the relative paucity of rollerlike birds in tropical America and their comparative abundance and diversity in the Old World tropics, it seems likely that, by the time the coraciiform stock had reached the Neotropics, many niches occupied by members of this order in the Old World were already filled by members of various piciform and passeriform families. The passeriform suborder Tyranni, with more than 600 New World species, is particularly diverse. The presence of highly adapted potential competitors, such as the toucans (toucan), jacamars (jacamar), and puffbirds (puffbird), endemic members of the Neotropical avifauna, may have retarded the colonization and evolution of the Coraciiformes in the New World.

Classification

Distinguishing taxonomic features

      The external characteristics on which families are based are the size and shape of the beak and wing and the arrangement and amount of fusion (syndactyly) of the three front toes. The 10 families are united, additionally, by features of the palate bones, the tendons of the leg, the configuration of the leg muscles, and the body pterylosis (pattern of feathers (feather)).

Annotated classification

Order Coraciiformes (kingfishers (kingfisher) and allies)

 Small to medium-large land birds, with body lengths of about 10 to 160 cm (about 4–63 inches). Most species conspicuously coloured. Beak prominent; straight or slightly or strongly downcurved. Some syndactyly of toes (I, II, and III) in most families. Cavity nesters; young hatched blind and naked (except in Upupidae). About 211 species. Worldwide in temperate and tropical regions.

      Family Alcedinidae (kingfishers (kingfisher))

 Oligocene to present. Chiefly arboreal; short tarsus, small feet; syndactyl. Beak medium to long, straight, stout, usually spearlike. Wings short, rounded. Food: invertebrates and small vertebrates, including fish. About 90 species. Worldwide in temperate and tropical regions but greatest diversity in Indo-Australian region. Length 10–45 cm (about 4–18 inches).

      Family Todidae (todies (tody))

 Chiefly arboreal. Long, straight, flattened, blunt bill. Toes syndactyl. Wings short, rounded. Food: invertebrates, insects. 5 species; West Indies; length 9–12 cm (about 3.5–5 inches).

      Family Momotidae (motmots (motmot))

 Eocene to present. Chiefly arboreal. Moderately long, stout, pointed, slightly decurved bill usually with serrate cutting margins. Tarsus very short, toes syndactyl. Wing short and rounded. Food: invertebrates, lizards, and some fruit. 10 species; South and Central America; length 17–50 cm (about 7–20 inches).

      Family Meropidae (bee-eaters (bee-eater))

 Pleistocene to present. Arboreal and aerial. Bill long, compressed, tapering to a fine point, and slightly decurved. Tarsus short, anterior 3 toes slender, weak, and syndactyl. Wing long and pointed. Food: insects. About 25 species; Africa, southern Eurasia to Australia; 15–35 cm (about 6–14 inches) long, including elongated tail feathers.

      Family Coraciidae (rollers (roller))

 Eocene to present. Chiefly arboreal and aerial. Bill stout, crowlike, slightly downcurved, terminally hooked. Tarsus short, foot strong; inner and central toes united at base. Wing long, moderately pointed. Food: chiefly insects. 12 species; temperate and tropical parts of the Old World but greatest number of species in Africa; length 25–32 cm (about 10–13 inches).

      Family Brachypteraciidae (ground rollers (ground roller))

 Chiefly terrestrial in forest and desert brush. Rollerlike birds with longer tarsus and short, rounded wings. Food: small animals of forest floor or desert brush. 5 species; Madagascar; length 30–40 cm (about 12–16 inches), including long graduated tail of some species.

      Family Leptosomatidae (cuckoo rollers (cuckoo roller))

 Arboreal and aerial. Bill moderately long, stout, slightly decurved, and terminally hooked. Tarsus very short and, unique in this order, toes semi-zygodactyl (the outer, anterior toe reversible). Wings long, moderately broad and somewhat pointed. Also unique in having a pair of powder down patches, 1 on each side of rump. Food: large insects, lizards. 1 species; Madagascar; length about 43 cm (17 inches).

      Family Upupidae (hoopoes (hoopoe))

 Pleistocene and present. Terrestrial and arboreal. Bill long, slender, slightly decurved. Tarsus short, slender; toes long, with central and outer ones fused at base, claws short. Wing moderate, broad. Food: arthropods, and other invertebrates. 1 species; Africa, southern Eurasia, and Malaysia; length about 29 cm (about 11 inches).

      Family Phoeniculidae (wood hoopoes (wood hoopoe))

 Miocene (Europe), Recent (Africa). Arboreal. Bill long, slender, slightly curved to sickle-shaped. Tarsus very short; toes long, central and outer ones fused at base. Claws long, curved and sharp. Food: invertebrates chiefly. 8 species. Length 22–38 cm (about 9–15 inches).

      Family Bucerotidae (hornbills (hornbill))

 Eocene (Europe) to present. Chiefly arboreal (1 species chiefly terrestrial). Large, slightly curved bill, often with a casque or sculpturing (larger in males). Tarsus short to very short, toes syndactyl. Wings moderate to long and broad. Unique in the order in having eyelashes. Food: insects, small vertebrates, and fruit. 54 species; Africa, southern Asia to the Papuan area; length 40–160 cm (16–63 inches).

Critical appraisal

      The coraciiform birds are a heterogeneous assemblage with so few uniting characters that some experts doubt that it is a natural or monophyletic group, but strong evidence to reclassify the families included in this order has not been published. Instead, DNA studies tend to support the coherence of this taxon.

      The families of coraciiform birds fall into six or seven well-defined groups: (1) kingfishers, todies, and motmots, (2) bee-eaters, (3) rollers and ground rollers, (4) cuckoo rollers, (5) hoopoes, (6) wood hoopoes, which are sometimes united with the Upupidae, and (7) hornbills. The hierarchical relationships of the families have been subject to different views. Some authorities would include rollers, ground rollers, and cuckoo rollers as subfamilies of the Coraciidae. There is also a question as to whether the hoopoes and wood hoopoes are more closely related to the hornbills or the rollers, and some classifications go so far as to elevate hoopoes and hornbills to their own orders.

Austin L. Rand

Additional Reading

C. Hilary Fry and Kathie Fry, Kingfishers, Bee-Eaters & Rollers: A Handbook (1992), treats all 123 species. C. Hilary Fry, The Bee-Eaters (1984), discusses in greater detail this one group. More specific studies include Reginald E. Moreau, “The Comparative Breeding Biology of the African Hornbills (Bucerotidae),” Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 107A:331–346 (1937), and “The Nesting of African Birds in Association with Other Living Things,” Ibis, 6:240–263 (1942), which includes insect scavengers found in nests occupied by hornbills.Austin L. Rand Ed.

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