Glareola maldivarum
Silhouette: Cristian Gutierrez-Ibanez · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
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.
The Oriental pratincole has short legs, long pointed wings and long forked tails. It has a short bill, which is an adaptation to aerial feeding. The back and head are brown, and the wings are brown with black flight feathers. The belly is white and the underwings are chestnut.
Very good views are needed to distinguish the species from other pratincoles, particularly the very similar collared pratincole, which also has a chestnut underwing. The black-winged pratincole shares the black upperwing flight feathers, and lacks a white trailing edge to the wing. Those features are not always readily seen in the field, especially because the chestnut underwing appears black unless excellent views are obtained.
An unusual feature... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 5 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 2 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 3 | Tainan | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 4 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 6 | Manila | 🇵🇭 Philippines | |
| 7 | Kaohsiung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 8 | Kolkata | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Taichung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 10 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Oriental Pratincole sighting in Wadden Sea National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 141st most-seen of the 285 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Oriental Pratincole in Wadden Sea National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September and November–July, the lowest months.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Oriental Pratincole sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Oriental Pratincole sightings, Wadden Sea National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 10%).
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Oriental Pratincole that you can see in Wadden Sea National Park (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Black-headed Gull (about 70%), European Oystercatcher (about 70%) and European Herring Gull (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Oriental Pratincole is recorded against all the birds logged in Wadden Sea National Park (6 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
