Birds (Class Aves) are a familiar sight in our skies today, though they are rare as fossils. Three types of fossil birds have been found at Florissant: a new species of cuckoo related to the modern Oriental cuckoo, a roller, and a new fossil bird found in 1997 which is possibly a plover. Modern cuckoos live in forests, scrub land, and woodlands and feed on a wide variety of insects. Rollers live mainly in the Old World, most diverse in Africa, and feed on terrestrial invertebrates such as insects, spiders, and small vertebrates. Modern plovers are highly migratory and can be found along the shoreline of any wetland pond, lake or ocean throughout the world.
