Cream-colored Courser (Cursorius cursor) [XC149578]
by David Darrell-Lambert from Desert National Park, Thar Desert, near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India (flight call)
Cream-colored Courser (Cursorius cursor) [XC164193]
by Frank Lambert from Tagdilt Track, Boumalne du Dades, Morocco (flight call)
Subspecies
Cursorius cursor (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into Cream-colored Courser (Cursorius cursor) and Somali Courser (Cursorius somalensis) (including ssp. littoralis) following Pearson and Ash (1996) owing to morphological differences.
Smaller, darker subspecies somalensis and littoralis of eastern Africa are more distinct and may actually belong to Burchell's Courser (Cursorius rufus). Some intergradation between subspecies exsul, cursor and bogolubovi. Canary Is population sometimes racially distinguished as bannermani, but separation from cursor dependent on size alone and probably not significant.
Proposed subspecies dahlakensis and meruensis nowadays included in subspecies cursor and littoralis respectively.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
bogolubovi Zarudny, 1885 - South-eastern Turkey through eastern Iran to south-western Afghanistan, southern Pakistan and north-western India.
cursor (Latham, 1787) - Canary Is, northern Africa, Arabian Peninsula and Socotra. Winters south to Sahel, northern Kenya and Saudi Arabia.
exsul Hartert, 1920 - Cape Verde Is.
somalensis Shelley, 1885 - North-eastern. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Somali Courser (Cursorius somalensis).
littoralis Erlanger, 1905 - Extreme south-eastern Sudan, through northern Kenya to southern Somalia. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Somali Courser (Cursorius somalensis).
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Birds in Colour Campbell, B., 1960, Penguin Books Ltd
The Pocket Guide to Nest and Eggs Fitter, R.S.R., 1954, Collins
RSPB Handbook of British Birds Holden, P., Cleeves, T., 2002, A & C Black ISBN 0 7136 5713 8
Birds of Britain and Europe Sterry, P., et al., 2001, AA Publishing ISBN 0 7495 3068 5
The Popular Handbook of British Birds Hollom, P.A.D., 1973, H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd ISBN 0 85493 002 7
BirdLife International Species Factsheet