Oriental pratincole 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 of Latin "glarea", "gravel", referring to a typical nesting habitat for pratincoles. The species name "maldivarum" refers to the type locality, the ocean near the Maldive Islands; the type specimen, caught alive at sea, survived for a month on flies. These birds have short legs, long pointed wings and long forked tails. They have short bills, which is an adaptation to aerial feeding. The back and head are brown, and the wings
Australian pratincole the bill. The chicks then run out to be fed, probably in response to calls by the parents. The Australian Practincole has a repertoire of displays to distract threats, including; The Australian pratincole are known to call during summer thunderstorms. The calls are sweet or plaintive whistles or very soft and muted, trills and loud sharp notes. No differences in calls between males and females have been identified. Four different types of calls have been clearly identified; Flight call- sweet whistling upslurred 'weeteet' or 'quirriepeet'. Calls are usually a series of 3-4 rapid repeated notes and varying in length with