Wildlife
Kingfishers, hornbills and related birds form an order called the Coraciiformes. Other members are the bee-eaters, rollers and hoopoe. Many of the species in have brightly coloured plumage.
Scientific name: Coraciiformes
Rank: Order
The shading illustrates the diversity of this group - the darker the colour the greater the number of species. Data provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
Kingfisher (species)
Bee-eaters (Merops) (genus)
Pied kingfisher (species)The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colorful near passerine birds including the kingfishers, the Hoopoe, the bee-eaters, the rollers, and the hornbills. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base), though in many kingfishers one of these is missing.
This is largely an Old World order, with the representation in the New World limited to the dozen or so species of todies and motmots, and a mere handful of the more than 90 species of kingfishers. This is the most diverse bird order in body weight, ranging from the 5.5 gram Puerto Rican Tody (Todus mexicanus) to the 4.5 kg Southern Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri), if the hornbills indeed belong under this classification.
The name Coraciiformes means "Raven-like", which is a misnomer (ravens are passerines). Specifically, it comes from the Latin language "Corax", meaning "Raven" and Latin "Forma", meaning "form", which is the standard ending for bird orders. [Terres p 104]
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