Birds
Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis)
The Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis) is a sandy-brown wader of dry open country that runs on the ground to catch insects. It lives in Eritrea, eastern Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Kenya, and has two subspecies. The IUCN Red List lists it as Least Concern.
In short
The Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis) is a wader of the pratincole and courser family, Glareolidae. Unusually for a wader, it lives in open dry country: semi-desert, short grassland and burnt grass, where it hunts insects by running on the ground. It is native to Eritrea, eastern Ethiopia, Somalia, the far southeast of South Sudan, and northern and eastern Kenya (Wikipedia, Somali courser, backup). Shelley described it in 1885 (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy).
How to recognise it
It is 19 to 22 cm long. It looks much like the cream-coloured courser but its body is a darker greyish-brown. In flight only the outer half of the underwing is black, while the cream-coloured courser's whole underwing is black. Both have a black stripe and white eyebrow behind the eye that look like a "V" from behind (Wikipedia, Somali courser, backup).
In the north of its range it meets cream-coloured coursers that come for the winter, so care is needed to tell them apart (same source).
Two subspecies
The IOC World Bird List accepts two subspecies (IOC World Bird List, coursers):
- C. s. somalensis Shelley, 1885: Eritrea, eastern Ethiopia and Somalia.
- C. s. littoralis Erlanger, 1905: far southeast South Sudan, northern and eastern Kenya, and southern Somalia.
It has been accepted as a species of its own only since near the end of the 20th century. Before that, some authors treated its two forms as subspecies of the cream-coloured courser and others as subspecies of Burchell's courser of southern Africa (Wikipedia, Somali courser, backup).
Records in Somali lands
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) holds 56 records of the Somali courser from Somalia, dated from 1901 to 2025 (GBIF occurrence search, Somalia). By type: 52 sightings by people, 3 museum specimens, 1 other record.
Records that name a region (53 of 56), by region: Woqooyi Galbeed 19, Togdheer 14, Sanaag 6, Middle Shabelle 4, Awdal 3, Sool 3, Bari 2, Hiiraan 2 (same source).
The oldest dated record is a museum specimen from 1901, from a place recorded as "Kismaayo", held by SMF (GBIF record 767397324).
The newest dated record is a sighting by a person from 2025, from Sanaag, held by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (eBird) (GBIF record 6690808301).
GBIF only holds what museums, scientists and observers have shared, so the counts show where the animal or plant has been recorded, not its full range.
Red List status
The IUCN Red List category for the Somali courser is Least Concern (IUCN Red List assessment; GBIF species page).
Classification
| Rank | Name |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Charadriiformes |
| Family | Glareolidae |
| Genus | Cursorius |
| Species | Cursorius somalensis |
Scientific name with author: Cursorius somalensis Shelley, 1885 (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy).
Related pages
Sources
Sources
- Wikipedia, Somali courser, backup · en.wikipedia.org
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · gbif.org
- IOC World Bird List, coursers · worldbirdnames.org
- GBIF occurrence search, Somalia · gbif.org
- GBIF record 767397324 · id.senckenberg.de
- GBIF record 6690808301 · gbif.org
- IUCN Red List assessment · doi.org
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- Juba weaver (Ploceus dichrocephalus)The Juba weaver or Salvadori's weaver: name, range in the Horn of Africa, Red List status, and its 27 shared records in Somalia from 1901 to 2021.
- Somali bee-eater (Merops revoilii)The Somali bee-eater: what it looks like, where it lives, how it feeds and nests, why the IUCN thinks its numbers may be rising, and its records in Somalia since 1894.
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- Somali fiscal (Lanius somalicus)The Somali fiscal or Somali shrike: range, habitat, how it hunts and stores prey on thorns, nesting, Red List status and its records across Somali regions.
- Somali lark (Corypha somalica)The Somali lark, a bird found only in Somalia: its names, its move to the genus Corypha in 2023, its two subspecies including the former Ash's lark, and its records.