Round 3 - Reptilia - Leptosomiformes
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Our next order of birds are the Leptosomiformes. This order contains one family, Leptosomidae, one genus, Leptosomus, and one species: Leptosomus discolor, commonly called the “Cuckoo-roller” or “Courol”.
The Cuckoo-roller is a medium-large bird, inhabiting forests and woodlands in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. They have a stout bill with eyes set far back on the face. Their legs and feet are small, and the feet have an unusual structure which has confused many ornithologists, but is now thought to be zygodactylous (two toes forwards, two toes backwards). Their diet is varied, and they have been recorded feeding on various insects and lizards. They may hunt from the air or by watching motionless from a branch before quickly pouncing.
The Cuckoo-roller is sexually dichromatic. Males are velvety grey with an iridesent green back (image above), while females are mostly brown with dark spotted underparts (gif below). Juveniles of both sexes resemble dull females. Not much has been studied about the Cuckoo-roller’s breeding habits. They nest in a cavity in tall trees, without any nest lining. They usually lay around 4 eggs. Only the female incubates the eggs, while the male brings her food.
Despite its name, the Cuckoo-roller is not closely related to cuckoos or rollers. They are part of the clade Cavitaves, which also contains the clade Eucavitaves (a large assemblage of birds that includes woodpeckers, kingfishers, and trogons). The Cavitaves split from the mousebirds sometime in the Paleocene, around 62 million years ago.
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