Thick-knee

The family Burhinidae was introduced in 1912 for the stone-curlews by Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews. The family contains three genera: Hesperoburhinus, Burhinus and Esacus. The name Burhinus combines the Ancient Greek bous meaning "ox" and rhis, rhinos meaning "nose" (or "bill"). Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the family Burhinidae is sister to a clade containing the sheathbills in the family Chionidae and the Magellanic plover in its own family Pluvianellidae. The stone-curlews are not closely related to the curlews, genus Numenius, that belong to the sandpiper family Scolopacidae.

They are largely nocturnal, particularly when singing their loud, wailing songs, which are reminiscent of true curlews. Their diet consists mainly of insects and other invertebrates. Larger species also take lizards and even small mammals. Most species are sedentary, but the Eurasian stone-curlew is a summer migrant in the temperate European part of its range, wintering in Africa.

The earliest definitive stone-curlew is Genucrassum bransatensis from the Late Oligocene of France. Wilaru, described from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene of Australia, was originally classified as a stone-curlew, but was subsequently argued to be a member of the extinct anseriform family Presbyornithidae, instead. The living species are: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Picture !! Name !! Binomial name |- | |Double-striped thick-knee |Hesperoburhinus bistriatus |- | |Peruvian thick-knee |Hesperoburhinus superciliaris |- | | Eurasian stone-curlew | Burhinus oedicnemus |- | | Indian stone-curlew | Burhinus indicus |- | | Senegal thick-knee | Burhinus senegalensis |- | | Water thick-knee | Burhinus vermiculatus |- | | Spotted thick-knee | Burhinus capensis |- | | Bush stone-curlew | Burhinus grallarius (formerly B. magnirostris). |- | | Great stone-curlew | Esacus recurvirostris |- | | Beach stone-curlew | Esacus magnirostris |}