The black-winged pratincole (''Glareola nordmanni'') is a

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

in the

pratincole The pratincoles or greywaders are a group of birds which together with the coursers make up the family Glareolidae. They have short legs, very long pointed wings and long forked tails. Description Their most unusual feature for birds classed as ...

bird family, Glareolidae. The genus name is a diminutive of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

''glarea'', "gravel", referring to a typical nesting habitat for pratincoles. The species name commemorates the Finnish-born zoologist and explorer

Alexander von Nordmann Alexander von Nordmann (24 May 1803 in Ruotsinsalmi (now Kotka), Finland – 25 June 1866 in Helsinki) was a 19th-century Finnish biologist, who contributed to zoology, parasitology, botany and paleontology.Leikola A (2001Nordmann, Alexander v ...

Description

It is long, with short legs, long pointed wings and a forked tail. 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 black. Very good views are needed to distinguish this species from other pratincoles, such as the collared pratincole and the oriental pratincole which may occur in its range. It is marginally larger than the collared pratincole, and is shorter-tailed and longer legged. Although the dark underwing and lack of a white trailing edge to the wing are diagnostic, these features are not always readily seen in the field, especially as the chestnut underwing of the collared pratincole appears black unless excellent views are obtained.

Distribution and habitat

The black-winged pratincole is a bird of open country and is often seen near water in the evening, hawking for insects. This pratincole is found in warmer parts of south-east Europe and south-west

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. It is migratory, wintering in tropical Africa, and is rare north or west of the breeding range.

Behaviour

Breeding

Its 2–4 eggs are laid on the ground.

Feeding

An unusual feature of the pratincoles is that, although classed as waders, they typically hunt their

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, Thorax (ins ...

prey on the wing like

swallows The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. Th ...

, although they can also feed on the ground.

Conservation

The black-winged pratincole is one of the species to which the ''Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds'' (

AEWA The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, or African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) is an independent international treaty developed under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme's Conventio ...

) applies. The

Acanthocephala Acanthocephala ( Greek , ', thorn + , ', head) is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to ...

n parasite '' Apororhynchus paulonucleatus'' was discovered in the intestine of the black-winged pratincole. Glareola nordmanni MWNH 0276

References

External links

*
Glareola nordmanni photos and records
a
Shumkar
(in Russian)
Black-winged pratincole species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
* * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q695729 black-winged pratincole Birds of Central Asia Birds of Southern Africa Birds of West Africa black-winged pratincole Taxa named by Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim