Oriental Pratincole
Glareola maldivarum
Twisting and turning on long, angular wings, this relative of the sandpipers and plovers gives a swallowlike impression in flight. Adults are brown overall with an elegant black necklace and pale yellow throat. When in flight, note dark flight feathers, chestnut underwing coverts, bright white trailing edge to the wings, and a flashing white rump. Juveniles are a mottled gray-brown above and lack the adult's necklace. Flight call a harsh “tarrack.”
Identification
These birds have short legs, long pointed wings and long forked tails. They have short bills, which is an adaptation to aerial feeding. The back and head are brown, and the wings are brown with black flight feathers. The belly is white. The underwings are chestnut. Very good views are needed to distinguish this species from other pratincoles, such as the very similar collared pratincole, which also has a chestnut underwing, and black-winged pratincole which shares the black upperwing flight feathers and lack of a white trailing edge to the wing. These features are not always readily seen in the field, especially as the chestnut underwing appears black unless excellent views are obtained.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Glareola maldivarum
- Authority
- Forster, JR, 1795
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Glareolidae
- Genus
- Glareola
Range and habitat
The Oriental pratincole is native to Asia, breeding from North Pakistan and the Kashmir region, sporadically southwards towards the Maldives and Sri Lanka, Indochina, eastern China, Manchuria and the Philippines. It is migratory and winters throughout the Indomalayan realm and western Australasia.
- Breeding range
- PAL, OR : patchily in temperate to tropical grassland near water of s to ne Asia: w India and Sri Lanka, se Asia to Malay Pen., e, ne China, Philippines, Taiwan, e Siberia and s, c Japan
- Non-breeding range
- OR, AU : grassy fields of Chagos Arch. and Maldives (wc Indian Ocean), Indian Pen. through Indonesian Arch., Cocos (Keeling), Christmas I. and Ashmore Reef (se Indian Ocean), n WA and n NT (n, nc Australia), Mariana Is. to Palau, Truk, Yap and Marshall Is. (w Micronesia)
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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