Cream-coloured Courser found breeding further north than ever before

Cream-coloured Courser has been recorded breeding further north than ever before, with young fledging in western Türkiye (Turkey).

The edge of the desert wader's range is south-eastern Türkiye, where the form bogolubovi extends east to India. The nominate form is found in arid landscapes on the Canary Islands, across North Africa and Arabian Peninsula, while Cape Verde is home to a third subspecies, exsul.

Aridification is thought to have been a driving factor in the northernmost Cream-coloured Courser breeding record, with four young found in western Türkiye (Lee Fuller).

In a paper published in the journal Zoology in the Middle East in 2023, three observers documented Cream-coloured Courser breeding on the saline steppe near the southern shore of Lake Tuz, the Türkiye's second-largest waterbody, around 15 km east of Eskil.

Two pairs were found on 30 June 2022 in the area drained by intensive agriculture, with four young fledging in August.

Lake Tuz becomes the westernmost Cream-coloured Courser breeding site in Türkiye, as well as the furthest north across the species' whole range.

Climate change has previously resulted in multiple breeding records in southern Spain by creating semi-desert conditions in new areas. Aridification could also be driving a westward expansion of the species in Türkiye.

Reference

Karataş, A, Tunç, F, and Karataş, A, 2023. Range extension of the Cream-coloured Courser Cursorius cursor to central Anatolia (Aves: Charadriiformes). Zoology in the Middle East 69 (4). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09397140.2023.2284018