- Glareola pratincola
Identification
24–28 cm
- Brown head, back and wings
- Buff chin and throat (bordered in summer by a thin black line)
- Dark wing tips with whitish trailing edges
- Chestnut underwings
- White belly and rump
- Short black-tipped red bill
- Short black legs
- Long forked tail
Juvenile: mottled above and lacks the black line.
Similar Species
Black-winged Pratincole is darker overall and lacks the light trailing edge on the wings; the underwing is black.
Distribution
Southern Palearctic and tropical Africa. Europe, southwest Asia and Africa.
Vagrant to Northern Europe; annual in Britain and Ireland.
Taxonomy
Subspecies1
- G. p. pratincola - southern Europe to Pakistan; winters sub-Saharan Africa north of 5°N
- G. p. erlangeri - Coastal plains of southern Somalia and northern Kenya
- G. p. fuelleborni - Senegal to southern Kenya, Zaire, Namibia and eastern South Africa
Habitat
Near water. Open country; mud flats with low vegetation. Also canals, wet meadows and saltpans.
Behaviour
Often crepuscular.
Flight
Rather tern-like when hawking for insects. Flight outline also recalls large hirundine.
Diet
The diet includes insects which are usually aerially hawked but also feeds on the ground.
Breeding
Breeds colonially. Two to four eggs are laid in a ground scrape.
Vocalisation
Call: hard kyik or kittik
<flashmp3>Glareola pratincola (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program
References
- Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
- Wikipedia
- Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
- Collins Field Guide 5th Edition
- Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6
