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Coraciiformes

Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, Rollers, and relatives

Joseph W. Brown and John Harshman
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taxon links [up-->]Meropidae [up-->]Alcedinidae [up-->]Momotidae [up-->]Coraciidae [up-->]Todidae [up-->]Brachypteraciidae [down<--]'Land Birds' Interpreting the tree
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Phylogenetic hypothesis taken from Hackett et al. (2008)
Containing group: 'Land Birds'

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

Several families traditionally assigned to Coraciiformes have been removed from the order. Bucerotidae and Bucorvidae (hornbills), Upupidae and Phoeniculidae (hoopoes) have been given their own order, Bucerotiformes. Leptosomus (cuckoo roller) is not a roller, and is only distantly related to other traditional coraciiforms. An order that included all these groups would also have to encompass Piciformes and Trogoniformes.

Other Names for Coraciiformes

References

Burton, P. J. K. 1984. Anatomy and evolution of feeding apparatus in the avian orders Coraciiformes and Piciformes. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 47:331-443.

Fry, C.H., Fry, K. and Harris, A. 1992. Kingfishers, Bee-Eaters and Rollers: A Handbook. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Hackett, S. J., Kimball, R. T., Reddy, S., Bowie, R. C. K., Braun, E. L., Braun, M. J., Chojnowski, J. L., Cox, W. A., Han, K.-L., Harshman, J., Huddleston, C. J., Marks, B. D., Miglia, K. J., Moore, W. A., Sheldon, F. H., Steadman, D. W., Witt, C. C., and Yuri, T. 2008. A phylogenomic study of birds reveals their evolutionary history. Science 320(5884):1763-1768.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Momotus momota
Location Tobago
Comments Blue-crowned Motmot
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Copyright © Greg and Marybeth Dimijian
Scientific Name Coracias caudatus
Location Masai Mara, Kenya
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Source Pretty Bird
Source Collection Flickr
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 2.0.
Copyright © 2006 Vearl Brown
Scientific Name Halcyon albiventris
Location Kruger National Park, South Africa
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Source Brown Hooded Kingfisher
Source Collection Flickr
Copyright © 2006 Callie de Wet
About This Page

Joseph W. Brown
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA


Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Joseph W. Brown at and John Harshman at

Page: Tree of Life Coraciiformes. Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, Rollers, and relatives. Authored by Joseph W. Brown and John Harshman. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Brown, Joseph W. and John Harshman. 2008. Coraciiformes. Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, Rollers, and relatives. Version 27 June 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Coraciiformes/56738/2008.06.27 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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Coraciiformes

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