Oriental pratincole

Last updated

Oriental pratincole
Glareola maldivarum - Beung Borapet.jpg
In central Thailand
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Glareolidae
Genus: Glareola
Species:
G. maldivarum
Binomial name
Glareola maldivarum
Forster, 1795
Glareola maldivarum - Oriental Pratincole

The oriental pratincole (Glareola maldivarum), also known as the grasshopper-bird or swallow-plover, is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae.

Contents

Etymology

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

The Oriental pratincole has short legs, long pointed wings and long forked tails. It has a short bill, 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 and the underwings are chestnut.[ citation needed ]

Very good views are needed to distinguish the species from other pratincoles, particularly the very similar collared pratincole, which also has a chestnut underwing. The black-winged pratincole shares the black upperwing flight feathers, and lacks a white trailing edge to the wing. Those features are not always readily seen in the field, especially because the chestnut underwing appears black unless excellent views are obtained.[ citation needed ]

Habits

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

They lay 2–3 eggs on the ground.

Distribution

The Oriental pratincole is native to Asia, breeding from North Pakistan and the Kashmir region, and 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 northern Australia.

Vagrancy

They are rare north or west of their breeding range, but, amazingly, this species has been seen as far away as Great Britain more than once. The first record of a sighting in the Western Palearctic was in Suffolk, England, in June 1981. [3] On 7 February 2004, 2.5 million oriental pratincoles were recorded by the Australasian Wader Studies Group on the Eighty Mile Beach in Australia's north-west.[ citation needed ] There had previously been no record of such a large number of birds and it is supposed that weather conditions caused much of the world's population of the species to congregate in one area.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pratincole</span> Subfamily of birds

The pratincoles or greywaders are a subfamily (Glareolinae) of birds which together with the coursers make up the family Glareolidae. They have short legs, very long pointed wings and long forked tails.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glareolidae</span> Family of birds

Glareolidae is a family of birds in the wader suborder Lari. It contains two distinct groups, the pratincoles and the coursers. The atypical Egyptian plover, traditionally placed in this family, is now known to be only distantly related.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The wood sandpiper is a small wader belonging to the sandpiper family Scolopacidae. A Eurasian species, it is the smallest of the shanks, a genus of mid-sized, long-legged waders that largely inhabit freshwater and wetland environments, as opposed to the maritime or coastal habitats of other, similar species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collared pratincole</span> Species of bird

The collared pratincole, also known as the common pratincole or red-winged pratincole, is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae. As with other pratincoles, it is native to the Old World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-winged pratincole</span> Species of bird

The black-winged pratincole is a wader in the pratincole bird family, Glareolidae. The genus name is a diminutive of Latin glarea, "gravel", referring to a typical nesting habitat for pratincoles. The species name commemorates the Finnish-born zoologist and explorer Alexander von Nordmann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cream-colored courser</span> Species of bird

The cream-colored courser is a species of wader in the pratincole and courser family, Glareolidae. Both parts of the scientific name derive from Latin cursor, "runner", from currere, "to run" which describes their usual habit as they hunt their insect prey on the ground in dry open semi-desert regions of the Middle East and northern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small pratincole</span> Species of bird

The small pratincole, little pratincole, or small Indian pratincole is a small wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae.

<i>Glareola</i> Genus of birds

Glareola is a genus of birds in the family Glareolidae. The pratincoles are a group of birds consisting of the seven species of this genus and the Australian pratincole, the only species of the genus Stiltia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-eyed river martin</span> Species of bird

The white-eyed river martin is a passerine bird, one of only two members of the river martin subfamily of the swallows. Since it has significant differences from its closest relative, the African river martin, it is sometimes placed in its own genus, Eurochelidon. First found in 1968, it is known only from a single wintering site in Thailand, and may be extinct, since it has not been seen since 1980 despite targeted surveys in Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia. It may possibly still breed in China or Southeast Asia, but a Chinese painting initially thought to depict this species was later reassessed as showing pratincoles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock pratincole</span> Species of bird

The rock pratincole is a species of bird in the family Glareolidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian pratincole</span> Species of bird

The Australian pratincole is a species of bird in the family Glareolidae. It breeds in Australia's interior and winters in northern and eastern parts of the continent, Indonesia and New Guinea. It is a medium-sized nomadic shorebird but is commonly found in arid inland Australia. It breeds predominantly from south-western Queensland to northern Victoria, and through central Australia to the Kimberley region in Western Australia. The Australian population is estimated at 60,000 individuals.

References

  1. 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.
  2. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp.  174, 239. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. Burns, David W. (1993) Oriental Pratincole: new to the Western Palearctic British Birds 86(3): 115–20