Rufous-headed ground roller

Rufous-headed ground roller
Ranomafana National Park
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Brachypteraciidae
Genus: Atelornis
Species:
A. crossleyi
Binomial name
Atelornis crossleyi
Sharpe, 1875

The rufous-headed ground roller (Atelornis crossleyi) is a species of bird in the ground roller family, Brachypteraciidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. There are currently five known species of ground rollers. Four of these species live in the eastern and central highland humid forests. Unlike the four other species, the fifth species lives in the dry southwestern spiny bushes of Madagascar. The Atelornis crossleyi species of the ground rollers lives with most of its family in humid forests.[2] The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers the bird to be near-threatened because, although it is present in a number of protected areas, it is hunted for food and the forests in which it lives are threatened by slash-and-burn cultivation.[1] The bird's scientific name commemorates Alfred Crossley who collected mammals, birds, butterflies and moths in Madagascar and Cameroon in the 1860s and 1870s. Many of these are in the Natural History Museum, London.[3]

  1. ^ a b BirdLife International (2016). "Atelornis crossleyi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22682961A92970398. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22682961A92970398.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ Kirchman, Jeremy J.; Hackett, Shannon J.; Goodman, Steven M.; Bates, John M. (October 2001). "Phylogeny and systematics of ground rollers (Brachypteraciidae) of Madagascar". The Auk. 118 (4): 849–863. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0849:PASOGR]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0004-8038.
  3. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2009). The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. JHU Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-8018-9533-3.