Habitat
Exposed emergent rocks in large rivers and streams, mud and sandbars by lagoons. Dams and ponds on migration. When rivers flood it may move to coastal areas, or other inland waters.
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Burundi, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sudan.
Population
Estimated population is 130,000 - 1,100,000 (2010).
Status LC
Habitat destruction through construction of dams and creation of lakes is the main threat.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Rock Pratincole (Glareola nuchalis) [XC465353]
by Andres Angulo from Mbam et Djerem National Park, Sanaga river, near to the WCS research station for Chimpanzee studies, Cameroon (song)
Rock Pratincole (Glareola nuchalis) [XC700031]
by Peter Boesman from Pra River, Ghana (call)
Nest
A shallow depression, tops of bare rocks or in a crack, usually surrounded by deep and sometimes fast-flowing water, or on rock ledges and under overhangs.
Subspecies
Subspecies liberiae sometimes considered a megasubspecies.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
nuchalis Gray, 1849 - Chad east to Uganda, extreme western Kenya and Ethiopia, and south to R Zambezi in Zambia, north-eastern Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
liberiae Schlegel, 1881 - Sierra Leone to western Cameroon.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet