CreatureData

Somali courser

Cursorius somalensis Shelley, 1885

LCLeast Concernbirds

The somali courser (Cursorius somalensis) is a species in the family Glareolidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 128 g to 138 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

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Quick facts about the somali courser

Weight
128 g – 138 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
desertsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
11.9 monthssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
1.5src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the somali courser live?

Not recorded

What is the somali courser?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis) is a wader in the pratincole and courser family Glareolidae, native to eastern Africa in Eritrea, eastern Ethiopia, Somalia, extreme southeast South Sudan, and northern and eastern Kenya. It is unusual among waders in being a bird of open dry country, preferably semi-desert, short grasslands, and burnt grass, where it typically hunts its insect prey by running on the ground.

It is 19–22 cm long, very similar to cream-coloured courser in most characteristics, but differing from it in having a darker, more greyish-brown body colour, and most obviously when in flight, in having only the outer half of the wing black underneath (the whole underwing is black in cream-coloured courser); the inner underwing being the same sandy-brown as the body. Like cream-coloured courser, it has a black stripe and white eyebrow behind its eyes, which when seen from behind look like a "V".

From the Wikipedia article “Somali courser” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Somali_courser&oldid=1341892011), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the somali courser endangered?

The somali courser is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the somali courser classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderCharadriiformes
  5. familyGlareolidae
  6. genusCursorius
  7. SpeciesCursorius somalensis Shelley, 1885

Synonyms Cursorius cursor somalensis, Cursorius cursor somaliensis, Cursorius somaliensis

Other names and names in other languages (30)
  • SOCOEnglish
  • Timadell SomaliaBreton
  • corredor de SomàliaCatalan
  • běhulík somálskýCzech
  • Somali ØrkenløberDanish
  • SomalirennvogelGerman
  • somalia kuruloEsperanto
  • Corredor somalíSpanish
  • somaali kõrbejooksurEstonian
  • somalianaavikkojuoksijaFinnish
  • Courvite de SomalieFrench
  • Reathaí somáileachIrish
  • Corrione di SomaliaItalian
  • ソマリアスナバシリJapanese
  • ソマリスナバシリJapanese
  • Somalinis bėgūnėlisLithuanian
  • Somālijas kurjerputnsLatvian
  • Somalische RenvogelDutch
  • somaliløperNorwegian
  • rączak somalijskiPolish
  • corredor-somaliPortuguese
  • corredeira-somaliPortuguese
  • Сомалийский бегунокRussian
  • behavec pustatinnýSlovak
  • Somalijska trkalicaSerbian
  • somaliaökenlöpareSwedish
  • Somali YerkoşarıTurkish
  • бігунець сомалійськийUkrainian
  • 索马里走鸻Chinese
  • 索馬利亞走鴴Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the somali courser

Other species in the same genus Cursorius.

CompareSomali courser vs Cream-coloured courserSomali courser vs Indian courserSomali courser vs Temminck's courserSomali courser vs Burchell's courser

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the somali courser?

An adult somali courser weighs 128 g – 138 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the somali courser endangered?

The somali courser is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the somali courser?

The somali courser (Cursorius somalensis) belongs to the family Glareolidae in the order Charadriiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/somali-courser

MLA

“Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/somali-courser.

BibTeX
@misc{somali_courser_2026,
  title = {Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/somali-courser},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}