Charadrius
| 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 (common ringed plover) Linnaeus, 1758
| |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
| Synonyms | |
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. Species of the genera Aegialites (or Aegialitis), Thinornis, and Elseyornis were subsumed within Charadrius; these species are now part of this genus. The former genus name Thinornis combined the Ancient Greek this meaning "beach" or "sand" with ornis meaning "bird".[1] They are found throughout the world.
Many Charadrius species are characterised by their plumage pattern, being breast bands or collars. In the adult, the patterns are single complete bands (ringed, semipalmated, little ringed, long-billed), or double or triple bands (killdeer, three-banded, Forbes'). They have relatively short bills and feed mainly on insects, worms, or other invertebrates, depending on habitat. Prey is 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 (tactile sense) as do longer-billed waders like snipe or curlews.
Taxonomy
[edit]The genus Charadrius was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.[2] The name had been used (as Charadrios sive Hiaticula) by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603 for the common ringed plover.[3] The word is Late Latin and is mentioned in the Vulgate Bible. It derives from the Ancient Greek χαραδριος/kharadrios, an unidentified plain-coloured nocturnal bird that was found in ravines and river valleys (from kharadra, "ravine").[a][5] The type species is the common ringed plover.[6] However, it once appeared that the taxonomy of “Charadrius” was erroneous, as for example the Kentish plover is more closely related to lapwings than it is to, say, the greater ringed plover. Hence, either all members of Charadriidae, excluding Pluvialis are grouped in a single genus, Charadrius, or the genus is reduced to the common ringed plover, piping plover, semipalmated plover, and killdeer.[7] The latter option was chosen.
Species
[edit]The genus originally contained 33 species. However, in December 2023, The International Ornithologists' Union incorporated all species under Thinornis and Elseyornis into Charadrius (lumping them in), and some species of Charadrius are now placed in the genus Anarhynchus (being split out). As a result, Charadrius now consists of only 11 species:[8]
| Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) |
Charadrius vociferus | Killdeer | North America ; winters to Central and northwestern South America |
 |
Charadrius hiaticula | Common ringed plover | arctic and northern Europe ; winters to Africa and southern Asia |
 |
Charadrius semipalmatus | Semipalmated plover | North America |
 |
Charadrius melodus | Piping plover | central/eastern North America |
 |
Charadrius cucullatus | Hooded plover | southern Australia |
 |
Charadrius forbesi | Forbes's plover | forested Sub-Saharan Africa |
.jpg) |
Charadrius tricollaris | Three-banded plover | southern Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa |
_(9613355522).jpg) |
Charadrius melanops | Black-fronted dotterel | South Australia, western Tasmania and New Zealand |
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Charadrius novaeseelandiae | Shore plover | Chatham Islands |
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Charadrius dubius | Little Ringed plover | Eurasia |
 |
Charadrius placidus | Long-billed plover | Manchuria and East Asia |
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 384. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 150.
- ^ Aldrovandi, Ulisse (1599). Vlyssis Aldrovandi philosophi ac medici Bononiensis historiam naturalem in gymnasio Bononiensi profitentis, Ornithologiae (in Latin). Vol. 1. Bononiae (Bologna, Italy): Franciscum de Franciscis Senensem. pp. 536–537, Lib. 20 Cap. 67.
- ^ Anonymous (1592). Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis (in Latin). Rome: Ex. Typographica Apostolica Vaticana. p. 92, Leviticus Chapter 11 Verse 19.
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 245.
- ^ Černý, David; Natale, Rossy (24 September 2023). "Comprehensive taxon sampling and vetted fossils help clarify the time tree of shorebirds (Aves, Charadriiformes)". bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2021.07.15.452585.
- ^ International Ornithologists' Union. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela (eds.). "IOC World Bird List 14.1" (xlsx). Retrieved 2023-12-20.
Further reading
[edit]- Les Christidis, Walter Boles: Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing. 2008. ISBN 978-0-643-06511-6
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