Oriental Pratincole Glareola maldivarum 普通燕鴴
Category I. Passage migrant, common in spring, uncommon in autumn, and scarce in summer. Occurs in wetland areas.
IDENTIFICATION
Apr. 2010, Michelle and Peter Wong. Adult male, breeding plumage.
23-25 cm. Unusual shorebird that usually forages aerially in the manner of a tern on flying insects, though also on the ground running around on short, stiff legs. Tail falls substantially short of the wing tips.
Adult is olive-brown above with dark uniform wings and distinctive head pattern comprising a black line that extends down from the eye to encircle a buff throat. Head, mantle and chest buff, brighter on the flanks, white on the belly and undertail coverts. Legs short and grey, bill short with red base and wide gape. Male has more distinct black on lores and brighter buff throat.
Jun. 2021, L. H. Wong. Juvenile.
Juveniles are streaked on the head, mottled on the chest, fringed paler on the mantle, scapulars and wing coverts and lack a red base to the bill.
Pratincoles carry out a full post-juvenile moult and so first-winters are very similar to non-breeding adults.
Nov. 2022, K.F. Mak
In flight from above the lack of obvious white trailing edge to the secondaries is apparent.
Mar. 2009, Michelle and Peter Wong.
In flight from below the orange-brown underwing coverts are visible in good light, as is the relatively short tail.
VOCALISATIONS
Two calls are commonly heard. The first is a short ‘kik’, uttered either in flight or on the ground.
The second is a rolling inflected ‘kirrrik’ uttered in flight.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Occurs mainly in the northwest New Territories in low-lying wetland areas, including freshwater marsh, commercial fish ponds and the wader roosting areas at Mai Po NR especially where there is exposed mud or muddy bunds. However, also frequents grassy areas and was commonly recorded at the former airport of Kai Tak.
OCCURRENCE
Oriental Pratincole is a common spring passage migrant but is scarce at other times of year.
Since 1999 spring migrants have been noted in an extended passage period from early February to May, with peak numbers occurring in the second half of March and first three weeks of April (Figure 1). The earliest record is of 22 at Mai Po on 6 February 2010, a notably high count for such an early date. The highest spring count since 1999 is 191 on 22 March 2020, while historically it is 200 at Mai Po on 14 April 1979. A rapid decline in recorded numbers occurs after the third week of April.
Breeding activity in the summer from 2004 to 2018 (see below) is largely responsible for the summer records in Figure 1. The highest count was 23 (14 adults, 9 juveniles) on 9 June 2018.
Autumn migration is more erratic than that in spring with, in most years, only a few reports of 1-4 birds, though occasionally large numbers have occurred. The highest of these since 1999 is 250 migrating south at 1730h on 19 September 2011, while historically it is 530 at Mai Po and Tsim Bei Tsui on 5 October 1994.
Midwinter records in December and January are now rare with only one since 1996/97, whereas they occurred in ten winter periods from 1968/69 to 1995/96, including a notable count of 120 at Mai Po during 6-7 December 1975.
Vaughan and Jones (1913) recorded Oriental Pratincoles in March, April and the second half of October. Dove and Goodhart (1955) and Macfarlane and Macdonald (1966) listed records for April, May, early June, August and October.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Hawks insects aerially, but also forages for insects on the ground running around on short, stiff legs. Flocks may trawl an area of grass both aerially and on the ground with birds ‘leap-frogging’ each other as they move along.
Often heard before it is seen as its distinctive call indicates approaching birds. Favours damp muddy surfaces for roosting, including fish ponds that are drained or under reprofiling, when it can be very difficult to get an accurate count of well-camouflaged birds until they take flight.
BREEDING
Breeding was recorded in a number of years from 2005 to 2018. Apparent display and courtship feeding was noted on 26 May, adults on the nest during 3-29 June and recently fledged or dependent juveniles from 4 June to 3 July. Juveniles have been noted from 6 May to 12 July, but it is unclear if all these were hatched in HK.
In 1960, 1961, 1974-81 and 1989 there were several records in June and early July that are considered to indicate breeding occurred either in or close to HK, including up to 12 (though usually one or two) juveniles from 20 May to 24 June in 1974 and 1975. Compared to recent years considerably higher numbers of birds were recorded, with the highest count being 85 at Castle Peak on 9 June 1960. Cheng (1987) referred to breeding records as far south as Hainan. There were no June records from 1989 to 2001.
The evidence, albeit limited, suggests that there has been a decline in numbers of locally breeding birds, which is to be expected given the development of the Pearl River Delta and other lowland areas of Guangdong.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds mainly in northeast China and adjacent parts of eastern Mongolia, southeast Siberia and North Korea, as well as coastal provinces of east and south China, Indochina to northern half of peninsula Malaysia, northern Philippines and scattered areas of the Indian subcontinent, mainly in the west; winters in parts of southeast Asia, Indonesia, Borneo, Sulawesi, New Guinea and Australia (Maclean and Kirwan 2020). In China breeds in discrete areas of northeast, east and near west, and winters in the southwest (Liu and Chen 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend decreasing.
Figure 1.
Dove, R. S. and H. J. Goodhart (1955). Field observations from the Colony of Hong Kong. Ibis 97: 311-340.
Cheng, T. H. (1987). A Synopsis of the Avifauna of China. Science Press, Beijing.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Macfarlane, A. M. and A. D. Macdonald, revised by Caunter, J. R. L. and A. M. Macfarlane (1966). An Annotated Check-list of the Birds of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Hong Kong.
Maclean, G. L. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Oriental Pratincole (Glareola maldivarum), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.oripra.01
Vaughan, R. E. and K. H. Jones (1913). The birds of Hong Kong, Macao and the West River or Si Kiang in South-East China, with special reference to their nidification and seasonal movements. Ibis 1913: 17-76, 163-201, 351-384.
