Australian Pratincole
Australian Pratincole
22-24 cm; span 50-60 cm. Slim, graceful, upstanding sandy-olive wader with extremely long, narrow, pointed black wings; deep chestnut and black patch on flanks. Breeding Plumage: note short, arched, red-tipped black bill; legs long, grey, dull reddish or brown. Non-breeding: duller, bill mostly blackish; blackish spotting on throat; smaller flank marks. Immature: browner with shorter black primaries; sandy fringes to feathers of upperparts. Singles to open companies beside outback roads. Runs easily on long legs; pursues insects;leaps, swerves; on approach, bobs head, rocks rear of body up and down. Flight swift and tern-like on very slender, swept, black-tipped wings: note black underwings, chestnut flanks, white underparts; long legs protrude noticeably beyond the short, white, black-centred tail.
- Similar Species
- Oriental Pratincole: dark-rimmed cream throat patch, reddish tan wing linings; white, black-forked tail.
- Habitat
- vicinity of water on inland plains to coastal floodplains; stony ground with sparse low shrubs; claypans; bare margins of swamps; stock tanks, stock routes, airfields.
- Voice
- sweet 'weetweet' or shrill, tern-like 'quirree-peet'.
- Breeding
- in loose colonies mostly Sept.-Dec., but any month after suitable rain.
- Nest
- bare patch, ringed with small stones, plant material, dung pellets.
- Eggs
- 2; pale stone to creamy white, spotted and blotched grey, brown, black.
- Range & Status
- n. and inland e. Aust., from about Eighty Mile Beach (WA) to Rockhampton (Q), s. to coastal SA; casual in inland WA and Nullarbor Plain. Breeds mostly s. of Tropic, migrates n. in autumn-winter to n. Aust.; Torres Strait, PNG, Indonesia, Borneo. Vagrant NZ.
