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The almost all sandy-coloured plumage camouflages Cream-coloured Coursers while hunting for prey on sandy soil and rock-strewn areas. The belly and vent are light sandy to creamy-coloured, while the rest of the body plumage has a somewhat darker sandy tint. The outer wing feathers are black, which shows only as a narrow dark stripe when the wings are folded. Their only distinctive feature is that they have prominent white supercilia above parallel black stripes behind the eyes, both of which bend downwards and meet at the back of the neck. Above this double triangle of black and white the back of the head is light blue-grey. Juvenile Cream-coloured Coursers do not have a blue-grey back of the head, less colour contrast on the supercilia, a lightly-streaked neck and a lightly-scalloped pattern on the upperwing coverts.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Cream-coloured Courser is available HERE .

There are 3 races of Cream-coloured Coursers, which are a partially migratory species. The range of permanent residency of race "cursorius" extends from the Canary islands eastwards and in Africa stretches from the southern side of the Atlas mountain range in northern Africa along the northern fringe of the African desert to the Nile delta and the Sinai peninsula. Mostly birds that breed in the Atlas mountains will migrate to sub-Saharan Africa. The range of race "bogolubovi" spans from south-eastern Asia Minor to north-western India. They partially migrate to the Euphrates/Tigris river lowlands in southern Iraq, parts of the Arabian coastline and into tropical southern Asia during the northern winters. Race "exsul" is found only on the Cape Verdian islands.

In Arabia Cream-coloured Coursors are mostly found in semi-desert country, possibly breeding there. Some birds are also found on passage between Africa and Asia or spending the northern winters. They also reach open, especially sandy, country in near-coastal areas, e.g. in northern Oman.

Cream-coloured Coursors have a strong preference for open country with little vegetation, which is required for their hunting technique, by running after prey on the ground. They also nest in open, sandy terrain.

Race "bogolubovi"