Oriental pratincole Great Britain more than once. The first record for the Western Palearctic was in Suffolk, England in June 1981. On 7 February 2004, 2.5 million oriental pratincoles were recorded on Eighty Mile Beach in Australia's north-west by the Australasian Wader Studies Group. There had previously been no records of this magnitude and it is supposed that weather conditions caused much of the world's population of this species to congregate in one area. Oriental pratincole The oriental pratincole ("Glareola maldivarum"), also known as the grasshopper-bird or swallow-plover, is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae. The genus name is a diminutive
Australian pratincole winter they migrate to northern Australia, New Guinea, Java, Sulawesi and southern Borneo to over-winter . Although they are common, their occurrence is unpredictable and varies in location. The Australian pratincole belongs to the family Glareolidae. It is monotypic within the genus "Stiltia". Pratincole, Arnhem Land grouse, Australian courser, roadrunner, nankeen plover, swallow-plover. The Australian pratincole is a medium-sized slender shorebird with long legs, long pointed wings and a short decurved bill. It is 19–24 cm long, has a wingspan of 50–60 cm and weighs 55-75grams. The sexes look alike however their breeding and non-breeding plumage differs. Breeding plumage –