Glareolidae is a term used in reference to a family of birds, whose main physical attribute is the bill which is curved and a pair of nostrils at the base of the bill. This unique family of birds belongs to the wader category of birds, meaning that they are constantly moving in water in water although that may not be necessarily true of the coursers subfamily of the glareolidae family of birds . For this reason they have webbed feet. The glareolidae has several genera and species that number up to 17. the genera are Pluvianus Cursorius Rhinoptilus Stiltia and Glareola ; the first three being of the coursers sub family and the rest being of the pranticoles sub family.

The glareolidae family is made up of a sub family referred to as the coursers whose long legs allow it to run very fast. The coursers are taller due to the long legs. The pranticoles is the other sub family which is characterized by shorter legs and therefore shorter heights. The pranticoles have long wings to make up for what they do not have in legs. The longer wing span allows the pranticoles to migrate much faster and with ease than the coursers.

Coursers are harder to identify in their natural habitat, as they tend to blend in very easily in their natural habitat. They are inactive during the day and tend to do most of the hunting at night thus making it even more difficult to identify. The coursers do not live on large colonies like the pranticoles and are not as noisy as the pranticoles. Hunting at night has made coursers to develop good eyesight.

The glareolidae family is found in almost all of the world’s continents, with the exclusion of the Americas and the Caribbean islands. This family has its greatest population in Africa despite its presence in the other continents. It has sparse population in Europe from where they migrate every so often. The coursers are typically found in deserts and semi deserts like the Kalahari and the Namib deserts in the southern part of Africa. They can also be found in the relatively dry Areas of Africa like Tanzania’s Serengeti. On the other hand the other pranticoles are the exact opposite of the courses, choosing the forested and wet areas of the continent as habitat. They live close to water sources and prefer the cooler environment. The pranticoles migrate to breed and will escape from extreme weather conditions to find warmer places which will favor their breeding. The coursers, which are not good in flight migrate too, although over shorter distances and in low altitude compared to the pranticoles.

Coursers feed off the ground and will rarely fly. They feed on insects at night and do not have a specific delicacy. They will often look for the insects from a height and then drop down for the kill. They feed on ticks and other herbivore parasites and will more often than not be seen in the company of wildebeests gazelles and buffalos.