Cream-colored Courser Cursorius cursor Scientific name definitions

19–24 cm; 115–156 g (bogolubovi), 102–119 g (cursor); wingspan 51–57 cm (1 Snow, D. W., and C. M. Perrins, Editors (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Concise Edition. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ). Above pale sandy buff or sandy rufous with striking black stripe from behind eye to nape , bordered above by white stripe, with hindcrown blue-grey; below pale sandy, lower belly white; upperwing has black primaries and primary-coverts, sharply contrasting with sandy secondary coverts and secondaries; underwing black with narrow white trailing edge to secondaries; bill black; legs and feet yellowish white. Plumage subject to bleaching and wear. Pale belly, lacking sharp contrast with rest of underparts, separates from other members of genus. Juvenile finely mottled above and below with buff and black; head pattern inconspicuous ; primaries tipped buff. Races distinguished on shades of difference in coloration, presence and extent of darker colouring on belly, and on size, though this last feature is clinal; <em>exsul</em> darker with reddish sand-coloured upperparts and breast.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Arid, open, usually fairly flat, warm to hot desert and semi-desert, both stony and sandy, including dune troughs, with or without low sparse vegetation ; also short-grass and gravel plains, saltflats, semi-arid ground among sparse Acacia, semi-cultivated steppe and gravel roads. Usually occurs below 800 m, but recorded at up to 2400 m in Yemen (2 Jennings, M. C. (2010). Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Arabia. Fauna of Arabia 25. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Wildlife Commission and Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Frankfurt, Germany. Close ).

Nominate race makes extensive movements, much of N population apparently crossing Sahara for winter, when range extends to Sahel, Sudan and N Kenya; 30 birds of race cursor found in Jan–Feb 1987 along 165 km stretch of E shore of L Turkana, N Kenya, but just five records in Somalia (mainly in NW) between late Oct and early May (3 Ash, J. S., and J. E. Miskell (1998). Birds of Somalia. Pica Press, Robertsbridge, UK. Close ); scarce in N Sahara at this season; main northward movement in Sahara in Mar–Apr, sometimes into Jun; movement of c. 1000 birds over front of a few kilometres reported in Mar in Tunisia. Winters in W Negev Desert, Israel, Dec and Jan; immigration into Saudi Arabia in winter, probably from Middle East, when numbers increase and birds spread into deserts of Nafud and Empty Quarter. Breeding birds arrive Jordan early Mar and depart late Jun; then late autumn arrival of small numbers of migrants; arrives Mar in Lebanon (4 Prior, R. and Conroy, C. (2009). The Ras Baalbek semi-desert: Lebanon’s aridland area and its birds. Sandgrouse. 31(2): 140–145. Close ). Race <em>bogolubovi</em> mainly winter visitor to Pakistan and NW India , and is exclusively a summer visitor to Turkey and Iran; occurs Aug–Apr from Baluchistan, Sind and Punjab to Rajasthan and Gujarat, in loose flocks of 6–10 birds, occasionally up to 30 or more. May occur in small flocks in most seasons; up to 45 birds together in Egypt, Aug–Sept, and groups of up to 160 individuals have been reported in Kuwait during same season (2 Jennings, M. C. (2010). Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Arabia. Fauna of Arabia 25. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Wildlife Commission and Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Frankfurt, Germany. Close ). Has occurred widely in Europe as a vagrant including N to Scandinavia (1 Snow, D. W., and C. M. Perrins, Editors (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Concise Edition. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ), chiefly in autumn, including ten birds seen together in Netherlands, Sept 1969.

Mostly adult and larval insects, including beetles, grasshoppers, termites, cockroaches, maggots, ants, bugs, flies; also molluscs (including marine species), spiders, isopods, arachnids, seeds, and occasionally small lizards and snails. Feeds by running over ground and stopping to pick up prey which is swallowed whole, even large insects up to 8 cm long. Sometimes catches locusts in flight. May dig for food using bill, and may feed close to villages in some areas, taking insects attracted to catte dung, or to desert roads, perhaps in search of road-killed insects (5 Cocker, M. (2005). Cream-coloured Courser showing feeding attachment to desert roads. British Birds. 98(3): 156. Close ).

Generally rather silent, but occasionally noisy; commonest call is a sharp piping, liquid-sounding “wit” or “krit”, which is frequently repeated, especially in flight, and also utters a hoarse, croaking “hark” or “praak”, which again is most often repeated in flight, a “wut-quoi” given while feeding and a “qua qua” or “cluck” by adults with young; in display calls a piping “quit quit whow”, the final note nasal or grating, and sometimes given alone.

Season mainly late Feb–Jun in N Africa (but occasionally in autumn–winter too (6 Amezian, M., Bergier, P. and Qninba, A. (2014). Autumn-winter breeding by Cream-coloured Coursers Cursorius cursor is more common than previously reported. Wader Study Group Bulletin. 121(3): 177–180. Close ) ), Mauritania (once Oct) (7 Balança, G. (1996). Notes sur la nidification de quatre espèces d’oiseaux en Mauritanie. Malimbus. 18(2): 151–153. Close ), Israel and Iran, Feb–Apr in Arabia (2 Jennings, M. C. (2010). Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Arabia. Fauna of Arabia 25. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Wildlife Commission and Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Frankfurt, Germany. Close ), May–Jul in Turkmenistan, Apr in Pakistan, Apr–May in Jordan, Feb–May on Canary Is, Sept–May on Cape Verde Is (8 Koch, M. and Hazevoet, C.J. (2000). Breeding of Cream-coloured Courser in Cape Verde Islands. Dutch Birding. 22(1): 18–21. Close ), Dec–May in Senegal, and Sept–Jul on Socotra (9 Porter, R. F. and A. S. Suleiman (2014). The populations and distribution of the breeding birds of the Socotra archipelago, Yemen: 2. Shearwaters to Terns. Sandgrouse 36(1):8–33. Close ); small chicks in NW India in Feb and Jul; possibly double-brooded. Nest is shallow unlined scrape on bare ground; sometimes a few nests are clumped relatively close together (1 Snow, D. W., and C. M. Perrins, Editors (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Concise Edition. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ). Usually two eggs, occasionally three, cream or pale buff to yellow and usually densely spotted with brown, mean size 34·7 mm × 27·1 mm (1 Snow, D. W., and C. M. Perrins, Editors (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Concise Edition. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 10 Harrison, C. J. O., and P. Castell (2002). Bird Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East. Second revised edition. HarperCollins, London, UK. Close ); incubation 18–19 days, by both sexes. Chick finely mottled sandy rufous and white above; crown streaked dusky; below white, washed buff on breast, occasionally warmer. Adults recorded mock-brooding to distract observer from presence of chick ; fledging c. 26–30 days (10 Harrison, C. J. O., and P. Castell (2002). Bird Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East. Second revised edition. HarperCollins, London, UK. Close ). First breeding at one year old.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Perhaps increasing in W Africa due to southward march of Sahel; increased grazing pressure may lead to desertification which may be of benefit to species; first recorded in N Nigeria, Jan 1988, in three flocks totalling 34 birds, and in Ghana in May 1996 (11 van Gastel, A.J.G. and van Gastel, E.R. (1999). Cream-coloured Courser Cursorius cursor, new for Ghana Malimbus. 21(1): 54–55. Close ), although the latter record is undocumented and considered to require confirmation (12 Dowsett, R. J., F. Dowsett-Lemaire, and A. Hester (2008). The avifauna of Ghana: additions and corrections. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 15(2):191–200. Close ). Populations appear to be stable throughout most of range; however, reduced vagrancy in C Europe may indicate decrease since last century, although first breeding record in Europe occurred, in S Spain, in spring 2001 (13 Gutiérrez, R. (2001). The first breeding record of Cream-coloured Courser in Europe. Birding World. 14(8): 323–325. Close ). In Cape Verde Is, race exsul occurs on all but two of the inhabited islands, with population 750–1000 pairs in late 1980s/early 1990s. In Canary Is, known to breed only on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, with a single record on Tenerife in 2001 (14 Clarke, T. (2006). Birds of the Atlantic Islands. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), considered to have declined considerably in period 1970–1990; current population estimated at 200–250 pairs; in past, heavy egg-collecting pressure contributed to species' rarity; main threats now are destruction and alteration of habitat through development of tourist resorts, building of new roads and increase in off-road vehicles; need for site protection which would also benefit the endemic race of Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulata fuertaventurae). Confined in Turkey to SE of country, where total numbers breeding must be comparatively small, although large numbers sometimes congregate in autumn (15 Kirwan, G.M., Özen, M., Ertuhan, M. and Atahan, A. (compilers) (2014). Turkey Bird Report 2007–2011. Sandgrouse. 36(2): 146–175. Close ); only recently confirmed to breed in Lebanon, where numbers are also small (16 Ramadan-Jaradi, G., and M. Ramadan-Jaradi (1999). An updated checklist of the birds of Lebanon. Sandgrouse 21(2):132–170. Close , 17 Ramadan-Jaradi, G., T. Bara, and M. Ramadan-Jaradi (2008). Revised checklist of the birds of Lebanon 1999-2007. Sandgrouse 30(1):22–69. Close ). Arabian population estimated (perhaps conservatively) at 40,000 pairs, of which just 30 pairs in Qatar and 100 pairs in United Arab Emirates, and the vast majority in N & C Saudi Arabia, although the species’ highest densities are perhaps achieved on Socotra, where 500 pairs have been estimated (2 Jennings, M. C. (2010). Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Arabia. Fauna of Arabia 25. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Wildlife Commission and Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Frankfurt, Germany. Close ). Many hundreds of pairs of nominate cursor reported in Azraq Desert National Park, Jordan, and several hundred pairs in Israel, but reportedly declined greatly in Syria during 20th century (1 Snow, D. W., and C. M. Perrins, Editors (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Concise Edition. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ); found breeding on Socotra in 1993. Fairly common in Iran, at least in 1970s but no estimate of population (18 Scott, D. A. (2007). A review of the status of the breeding waterbirds in Iran in the 1970s. Podoces 2(1):1–21. Close ). Noted at 23 localities in W Mauritania between 17° N and 18°20’ N during breeding season in 1979 and 1980.