Adults: Breeding: Lores, black. Top of head, neck, back, tertials, olive. Throat, paler. Eye, dark brown. Primaries, black. Belly, flanks, deep chestnut and black. Undertail coverts, white. Wing coverts, black. Bill, black with gape and base red. Legs, grey, dull reddish or brown. Non-breeding: Similar to breeding plumage but duller. Throat is spotted. Belly, whitish but flanks chestnut.
Immatures: Browner with shorter black primaries. Feathers of upperparts have sandy fringes.
Other Names (World)
Australian Pratincole, Pratincole, Australian Courser, Swallow-plover, Spearwing, Road-runner, Arnhem Land Grouse, Nankeen Plover
Australia (B), Christmas Island, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste (NB).
Drier regions of northern and eastern Australia, spreading further southern in wetter years, but absent from south-west. Breeds sporadically throughout Australian range, but seldom north of 18° south. Two breeding records in Trans-Fly, southern New Guinea. Migrates to northern Queensland and Northern Territory, New Guinea and eastern Indonesian archipelago as far north-western as southern Borneo.
Population
Estimated population is 25,000 - 1,000,000 (2010).
Australian Pratincole (Stiltia isabella) [XC426334]
by Tom Tarrant from Roebuck Plains Station, Western Australia, Australia (flight call)
Australian Pratincole (Stiltia isabella) [XC426333]
by Nigel Jackett from Roebuck Plains Station, Western Australia, Australia (flight call)
Nest
A bare patch on the ground, ringed with small stones, plant-material and dung-pellets.
Eggs (Guide)
2, rarely 1; pale buff or yellow-tinged, with dark spots, blotches or short streaks; rounded-oval; 28 - 34 x 22 - 25 mm. Incubation: about 20 - 21 days; by both sexes.
Young
Semi-precocial, nidifugous.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Oriental Pratincole (Glareola maldivarum)
Cream throat patch with a dark rim. Underwing coverts, chestnut. Upperwing, dark. Tail, white and black, forked.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet