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Double-banded Courser
Live sightings near you, the range map, bar charts of when it is seen, and Macaulay Library photos and recordings.
Double-banded Courser
Smutsornis africanus
The double-banded courser (Smutsornis africanus), also known as the two-banded courser, is a species of bird in the family Glareolidae. It was formerly placed in the genus Rhinoptilus but is now the only species placed in the genus Smutsornis.
From the article Double-banded courser on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The bird's crown is pale and streaked with brown/black feathers. A narrow black stripe extends from the base of the bill, through the eye to the nape. The cheeks, chin, throat and neck are buff/white flecked with dark brown. The feather of the back and wing coverts are sandy brown with dark centres and broadly edged with white/buff. The short bill is blackish, eyes are dark brown and the legs and feet are pale grey.
Range & habitat
The double-banded courser is found in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, and Tanzania. The bird is widespread enough to have practically no chance of becoming endangered or extinct. The double-banded courser lives and breeds in flat, stony or gravelly, semi-desert terrains with firm, sandy soil and tufty grass or thorn scrub.
Wikipedia: “Distribution and habitat”
What it does
The bird eats mostly insects, such as ants, termites, and beetles. It catches its prey by quickly running after it and jabbing with its bill.
Wikipedia: “Feeding”
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Smutsornis africanus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 144498.