Pratincole
Encyclopedia
The Pratincoles or Greywaders are a group of bird
s which together with the courser
s and Egyptian Plover
make up the family Glareolidae
. They have short legs, very long pointed wings and long forked tails.
Their most unusual feature for birds classed as wader
s is that they typically hunt their insect
prey on the wing like swallows, although they can also feed on the ground. Their short bills are an adaptation to aerial feeding.
Their flight is fast and graceful like a swallow or a tern
, with many twists and turns to pursue their prey. They are most active at dawn and dusk, resting in the warmest part of the day.
Like the coursers, the pratincoles are found in warmer parts of the Old World, from southern Europe
and Africa
east through Asia
to Australia
. Species breeding in temperate regions are long distance migrants
.
Their two to four eggs are laid on the ground in a bare scrape.
The Australian Pratincole, the only species not in the genus Glareola, is more terrestrial than the other pratincoles, and may be intermediate between this group and the coursers.
The name "Pratincole" comes from the term pratincola coined by German
naturalist
Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer
from the Latin
words prātum meadow and incola resident.
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s which together with the courser
Courser
The Coursers are a group of birds which together with the pratincoles make up the family Glareolidae. They have long legs, short wings and long pointed bills which curve downwards...
s and Egyptian Plover
Egyptian Plover
The Egyptian Plover is a wader, the only member of the genus Pluvianus. Formerly placed in the pratincole and courser family, Glareolidae, it is now regarded as the sole member of its own monotypic family Pluvianidae....
make up the family Glareolidae
Glareolidae
Glareolidae is a family of birds in the wader suborder Charadri. It contains two distinct groups, the pratincoles and the coursers. The coursers include the atypical Egyptian Plover, Pluvianus aegyptius, which has sometimes been placed in its own family...
. They have short legs, very long pointed wings and long forked tails.
Their most unusual feature for birds classed as wader
Wader
Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s is that they typically hunt their insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
prey on the wing like swallows, although they can also feed on the ground. Their short bills are an adaptation to aerial feeding.
Their flight is fast and graceful like a swallow or a tern
Tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks...
, with many twists and turns to pursue their prey. They are most active at dawn and dusk, resting in the warmest part of the day.
Like the coursers, the pratincoles are found in warmer parts of the Old World, from southern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
east through Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Species breeding in temperate regions are long distance migrants
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
.
Their two to four eggs are laid on the ground in a bare scrape.
The Australian Pratincole, the only species not in the genus Glareola, is more terrestrial than the other pratincoles, and may be intermediate between this group and the coursers.
The name "Pratincole" comes from the term pratincola coined by German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer
Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer
Wilhem Heinrich Kramer was a German physician and naturalist.Kramer studied in Vienna then practiced medicine in Bruck, close to the capital, for at least fourteen years...
from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
words prātum meadow and incola resident.
Species list
- Australian PratincoleAustralian PratincoleThe Australian Pratincole is a species of bird in the Glareolidae family, found in Australia, Christmas Island, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea....
Stiltia isabella - Collared PratincoleCollared PratincoleThe Collared Pratincole or Common Pratincole, Glareola pratincola, is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae.Pratincoles are unusual among waders in that they typically hunt their insect prey on the wing like swallows, although they can also feed on the ground.The Collared Pratincole is a...
Glareola pratincola - Oriental PratincoleOriental PratincoleThe Oriental Pratincole , also known as the Grasshopper-Bird or Swallow-Plover is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae....
Glareola maldivarum - Black-winged PratincoleBlack-winged PratincoleThe Black-winged Pratincole, Glareola nordmanni, is a wader in the pratincole bird family, Glareolidae.Their most unusual feature of the 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...
Glareola nordmanni - Madagascar PratincoleMadagascar PratincoleThe Madagascar Pratincole is a species of bird in the Glareolidae family.It is found in Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania, possibly Mauritius, and possibly Réunion....
Glareola ocularis - Rock PratincoleRock PratincoleThe Rock Pratincole is a species of bird in the Glareolidae family.-Distribution and habitat:It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea,...
Glareola nuchalis - Grey PratincoleGrey PratincoleThe Grey Pratincole is a species of bird in the Glareolidae family.It is found in Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . ...
Glareola cinerea - Small Pratincole Glareola lactea