Back to families

BURHINIDAE - Thick-knees (2:9)
BURHINUS Illiger, 1811 M - Charadrius magnirostris Latham, 1801; type by monotypy = Charadrius grallarius Latham, 1801  
Burhinus oedicnemus Eurasian Thick-knee/Eurasian Stone-curlew
oedicnemus (Linnaeus, 1758) W and S Europe to N Balkans, Ukraine and Caucasus area >> Senegal to Ethiopia and E Africa
saharae (Reichenow, 1894)1 N Africa, Balearic Is., Malta, Cyprus, Levant to SC Turkey and SW Iran
harterti Vaurie, 1963 Volga delta, Transcaspia and NE Iran to W Pakistan and E Kazakhstan >> NE Africa and SW Asia [Vaurie, 1963 #3966]
distinctus (Bannerman, 1914) vW Canary Is.
insularum (Sassi, 1908) E Canary Is.
indicus (Salvadori, 1865)2,3 vC Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, mainland SE Asia to N Thai-Malay Pen.
Burhinus senegalensis 4  (Swainson, 1837) Senegal Thick-knee
vSenegal to Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, N Uganda and NW Kenya
Burhinus vermiculatus Water Thick-knee/Water Dikkop
buettikoferi (Reichenow, 1898) Liberia to S Nigeria and Gabon
vermiculatus (Cabanis, 1868) vDR Congo to S Somalia, south to Angola, N Botswana and E and S South Africa
Burhinus capensis Spotted Thick-knee/Spotted Dikkop
dodsoni (Ogilvie-Grant, 1899)5 Eritrea and N Somalia; W Yemen, W and C Oman
maculosus (Temminck, 1824)6 vSenegal to Ethiopia and Somalia (except coast), south to N Uganda and N Kenya
damarensis (Reichenow, 1905) vSW Botswana, Namibia, SW Angola
capensis (M.H.C. Lichtenstein, 1823) vSouth Africa and E and N Botswana to E and NW Angola, Tanzania and S Kenya
Burhinus bistriatus Double-striped Thick-knee
bistriatus (Wagler, 1829)7 vS Mexico (C Veracruz, SE Oaxaca) to NW Costa Rica
dominicensis (Cory, 1883) vHispaniola
pediacus Wetmore & Borrero, 1964 vN Colombia (Atlántico to Guajira) and NW Venezuela (Zulia, Falcón) [Wetmore, 1964 #4147]
vocifer (L'Herminier, 1837) E Colombia, N and C Venezuela, SW Guyana and adjacent N Brazil (NE Roraima)
Burhinus superciliaris   (von Tschudi, 1843) Peruvian Thick-knee
vCoastal SW Ecuador (Guayas) to extreme N Chile (NW Arica)
Burhinus grallarius 8  (Latham, 1801) α Bush Thick-knee/Bush Stone-curlew
vAustralia, lowland SC New Guinea (Trans-Fly region) [Latham, 1801 #2332]
ESACUS Lesson, 1831 M - Oedicnemus recurvirostris Cuvier, 1829; type by monotypy  9
Esacus recurvirostris   (Cuvier, 1829) Great Thick-knee/Great Stone-curlew
vSE Iran, S Asia, S China, continental SE Asia
Esacus magnirostris 10,11  (Vieillot, 1818) Beach Thick-knee/Beach Stone-curlew
vAndamans, Nicobars, coasts and islands of SE Asia from Thai-Malay Pen. to Wallacea, New Guinea, N Australia, Bismarck Arch. and Solomons to New Caledonia
1 Includes jordansi, astutus and theresae R. Meinertzhagen, 1948 [Meinertzhagen, 1948 #2643]; see Vaurie (1965) [Vaurie, 1965 #3967].
2 Includes mayri Koelz, 1939 [Koelz, 1939 #2244]; see Ripley (1982) [Ripley, 1982 #3332].
3 Treated as a separate species by Rasmussen & Anderton (2005) [Rasmussen, 2005 #4748] but see Martens & Bahr (2007) [Martens, 2007 #10461].
4 Includes inornatus; see White (1965) [White, 1965 #4191].
5 Includes ehrenbergi; see White (1965) [White, 1965 #4191].
6 Implicitly includes affinis; see White (1965) [White, 1965 #4191].
7 Includes vigilans van Rossem, 1934 [van Rossem, 1934 #3925]; see Hume (1996) [Hume, 1996 #2040].
8 Includes rufescens and ramsayi; see Schodde & Mason (1980) [Schodde, 1980 #3509]. Formerly known as B. magnirostris; the name grallarius, however, appears to have been properly selected by Sharpe (1896) [Sharpe, 1896 #3589] following Gould as First Reviser and was then in general use for over 40 years.
9 Included in Burhinus by Sibley & Monroe (1990) [Sibley, 1990 #3636], but see Baker et al. (2007) [Baker, 2007 #9757].
10 Formerly placed in monotypic genus Orthorhamphus, but see Sibley & Monroe (1990) [Sibley, 1990 #3636], who used the name Burhinus giganteus Wagler, 1829. The name magnirostris Vieillot, 1818, not preoccupied in Esacus, is here retained. If treated as congeneric, proof of rejection of magnirostris Latham as a secondary homonym before 1961 is needed (Arts. 59.2 and 59.3: ICZN, 1999 [I.C.Z.N., 1999 #2059].
11 Forms a superspecies with E. recurvirostris; see Sibley & Monroe (1990) [Sibley, 1990 #3636].
Top