Oriental pratincole
The oriental pratincole (Glareola maldivarum), also known as the grasshopper-bird or swallow-plover, is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae.
| Oriental pratincole | |
|---|---|
| In central Thailand | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Glareolidae |
| Genus: | Glareola |
| Species: | G. maldivarum |
| Binomial name | |
| Glareola maldivarum Forster, 1795 | |
Etymology edit
The genus name is a diminutive of Latin glarea, "gravel", referring to a typical nesting habitat for pratincoles. The species name maldivarum refers to the type locality, the ocean near the Maldive Islands; the type specimen, caught alive at sea, survived for a month on flies.[2]
Description edit
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.
Habits edit
An unusual feature of all pratincoles is that although classed as waders they typically hunt their insect prey on the wing like swallows, although they can also feed on the ground. The oriental praticole is a bird of open country, and they are often seen near water in the evening, hawking for insects.
Nesting edit
Their 2–3 eggs are laid on the ground.
Distribution edit
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.
Vagrancy edit
They are rare north or west of the breeding range, but, amazingly, this species has occurred as far away as Great Britain more than once. The first record for the Western Palearctic was in Suffolk, England, in June 1981.[3] On 7 February 2004, 2.5 million oriental pratincoles were recorded on Eighty Mile Beach in Australia's north-west by the Australasian Wader Studies Group[citation needed] . There had previously been no records of this magnitude and it is supposed that weather conditions caused much of the world's population of this species to congregate in one area.
Gallery edit
- Non-breeding adult
- Juvenile spotted Tenneri, Tamilnadu
- Stalking insects on the ground
- Breeding adult showing pale buffy throat patch
- Roosting flock at Chilika Lake, coastal India
- At Lockyer Waters, Queensland, Australia
References edit
- ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Glareola maldivarum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22694132A93440161. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22694132A93440161.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 174, 239. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Burns, David W. (1993) Oriental Pratincole: new to the Western Palearctic British Birds 86(3): 115–20
External links edit
- Media related to Glareola maldivarum at Wikimedia Commons
- Data related to Glareola maldivarum at Wikispecies
- Explore Species: Oriental Pratincole at eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)