Oriental Pratincole

Glareola maldivarum Forster, JR, 1795

Oriental Pratincole, Glareola maldivarum, is a bird of grassland near water across parts of Asia, breeding patchily from western India and Sri Lanka through south-east Asia to eastern China, the Philippines, Taiwan, eastern Siberia and southern and central Japan. Outside the breeding season it moves through the Oriental Region and Australasia, including the Indian Peninsula, the Indonesian Archipelago, northern Australia and several island groups in the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It is a wader in the pratincole family, and is marked by short legs, long pointed wings, a forked tail and a short bill.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Glareolidae — Coursers, Pratincoles

Breeding range

Palearctic, Oriental Region: patchily in temperate to tropical grassland near water of s to ne Asia: w India and Sri Lanka, se Asia to Malay Pen., e, ne China, Philippines, Taiwan, e Siberia and s, c Japan

Nonbreeding range

Oriental Region, Australasia: grassy fields of Chagos Arch. and Maldives (wc Indian Ocean), Indian Pen. through Indonesian Arch., Cocos (Keeling), Christmas I. and Ashmore Reef (se Indian Ocean), n WA and n NT (n, nc Australia), Mariana Is. to Palau, Truk, Yap and Marshall Is. (w Micronesia)