Family BURHINIDAE Mathews, 1912

Museums

Regional Maps

Introduction

The Burhinidae are a small polytypic terrestrial group of medium to large, primarily insectivorous, birds. There are two genera, Burhinus and Esacus. Their basic colour is brown and/or grey with darker shades forming streaking and thus breaking their uniformity. The family occurs on all continents except for Antarctica and barely extends into North America (Dickinson 2003). The genus Burhinus occurs in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, whereas Esacus is limited in distribution to Asia, Australia and island groups in the South West Pacific. Two of the nine extant species (22%) occur in Australia. Twenty-one ultrataxa are recognised; two of these are shared with South-east Asia and New Guinea.

Thick-knees, or Stone-curlews are terrestrial foragers. They are crepuscular or nocturnal feeders, feeding on insects and small vertebrates; their large and conspicuous eyes, are no doubt an adaptationto their nocturnal habits. Burhinids are gregarious, in winter sometimes forming large flocks often in excess of 20–30 individuals. During the warmer breeding months they are found as pairs or as solitary individuals. Their nests are shallow depressions or scrapes on the ground often situated adjacent to a fallen limb or other object. Most nests are entirely free of vegetable matter. Normal clutches size is two eggs. The oval-shaped eggs have a dull olive brown base colour overlain with blotching or spotting of darker browns and olives. Eggs and young are attended by both sexes of a pair. The young are precocial, nidifugous (leave the nest shortly after hatching) ptilopaedic (i.e. have the entire surface of the skin covered with down).

Burhinids are noisy, especially as a group and their nocturnal calls are one of the most eerie sounds of the bush at night. Groups may perform a concert at dusk in preparation to dispersal for feeding. In tropical Australia, where they are often present in urban areas, their call is well known to residents. When disturbed burhinids either skulk away or fly silently from the point of contact.

They are widespread across the continent although populations have experienced a dramatic reduction in temperate south-eastern Australia. In several areas their numbers have been totally eliminated. The family inhabits woodland, open forests, grassland (Burhinus) and open beaches and rock platforms (Esacus).

Christidis & Boles (2008: 129) review the family briefly.

General References

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp.

History of changes