Israbirding.com Forum

Yesterday 18/5/12 while leaving the k-20 salt pans from the southern side Barak Granit and I noticed a pratincole at the south-eastern corner of the ponds. Already from a distance, the bird appeared interesting, looking quite dark and somewhat compact. We suspected it could be a Black-winged Pratincole (BwP) and went to check on it. Approaching the bird I started to take record shots. Getting closer the first obvious thing was an extremely short tail, much shorter than the wings, so naturally we wondered whether we were watching an Oriental Pratincole (OP). The bird seemed indeed small and long-legged, and the plumage appeared cold-toned, somewhat darker than a typical Collared Pratincole (CP).

After taking decent record shots we flushed the bird to take pictures in flight. Red underwing coverts and a pale trailing edge from above were obvious. Although the short tail was also obvious in flight, we assumed the bird is probably an odd CP and moved on.

Back at home we studied the bird again by looking carefully at the images presented here. We then read the detailed article by Gerald Driessens & Lars Svensson. With yet no clear-cut conclusion we present the images and our thoughts. This post includes the text, images will follow.

There are some 11-13 characters that can be used to separate the species. We would like to keep this first post short, and thus only discuss some of the key characters. Some of the minor issues we are still studying.

The bird shows some good features for OP: a remarkable short tail (much shorter than wing tips), which should be one of the best way to tell the species apart. Otherwise there is the overall jizz: the bird appeared long-legged and condensed, with a short rear and upright posture. The images indicate a few other supportive features:


- Warm brown-nape contrasting cold grey lower-nape / upper back, neck sides and breast, forming a large grey collar. Checking a sample images this appears to characterize most possibly all OP and no CP(?).

- Extensive black on lores, creating a clear angle with black borders of throat patch. In CP the black lines appear to begin before the eye and have a somewhat rounded angle.

- Wide, oval nostril shape. This character, typical of OP has been mentioned by Driessens and Svensson and a key feature to assist separating the two species. In CP it should be a narrow, slit-shaped nostril.

Other key characters

- A narrow but obvious pale trailing edge on secondaries. This stripe appears narrower, and not as pure white in CP. The color appears off-white, more or less buffish in places. Possibly some of the secondaries are molted and these appear to have even narrower white tips. Whereas this appeared to us problematic for OP on the first place, Driessens and Svensson mention 30% of OP showing such narrow edge, and a brief search of images on the web indicates that indeed many OP do show this character.

- Form the pictures it appears that the red patch on under-wing coverts does not appear to extend to the carpal patch. I pushed the exposure to the extreme, and although some red tips may appear, this part of the wing appears mostly dark. Unfortunately I have no good, clear image of the under wing. Yet, Driessens and Svensson have criticized the concept that CP should show an extensive red patch compared with OP, and concluded that on average there is no difference between the species concerning this character.

At this point we welcome any thought about this bird. I will hopefully discuss a few more characters tomorrow.

Cheers,
E

This image should give the jizz impression and show the tail length.

Also showing the trailing edge and tail length and pattern.

Another interesting bird, at least #3 this spring with similar features. The possibility of 'afrotropical' Collared Pratincoles has been muted, or perhaps this is within the variation of ssp. pratincola. Possibly a cryptic population in C Asia, with mixed features of pratincola and maldivarum?
See here: http://birdingfrontiers.com/2012/05...afrotropical-pratincole-mystery/

Hi all,

After reading thoroughly the Identification of Collared Pratincole and Oriental Pratincole – a critical review of characters by Gerald Driessens & Lars Svensson I can sum the following points:

Important characters:
1.The white and buffish, serrated trailing edge to the secondaries is probably too thick for any spring OP.
2.The tail is much shorter than wingtips and fits better OP. However - judging the depth the tail-fork, it seems that most OP has shallower fork than this bird. The fork actually fits better CP though it is mentioned that some odd OP can possibly approach thi). .
3.Inner web of the inner primaries are distally paler than the outer webs (perched photo) and form a diffuse continuation of the secondary trailing edge, make the identity of CP certain.
4.Outer secondaries are distinctly paler than the inner ones – CP.
5.The length of the nostril is larger than twice the width (actually it is larger than 3 time the width) therefor – CP
6.Amount of red on bill base can fit for both species.

Supplementary characters:
7.Shaft of outer primary is whitish ot creamy white – indicative of CP.
8.Colour of upperparts – darker than CP and fits OP
9.Leg length – particularly long in this bird – better for OP.

To sum, There are too many important features to exclude pure maldivorum. Although hybrid is a possibility for concern, I would expect some cut off contradicting important features on such case. However, Such features are not exist on this bird. So we are talking about a definite Collard Pratincole, with unusual short tail, with darker upper parts and longer legs than usual.

Now, I will compare this bird to 'Afrotropical' Collard Pratincole, as its features are described in Gerald Driessens article: Field characters of Afrotropical Collared Pratincole.

Features which support 'Afrotopical' Collard Pratincole found on the Eilat bird:
1.Long mouth line – fits both OP and ACP but much less so CP.
2.Darker crown divided from the dark upperparts by a pale hindneck – on this Eilat bird the forehead is distinctly darker brown (obvious against the red bill base) than the greyer and paler crown which in its turn darker than the warmer brown hindneck. All in all the Eilat bird as obvious cap - strongly contrasting to the much paler rear cheek and throat.
3.Darker upperparts than in CP, and match (or even sometimes darker than) the dark upperparts of OP.
4.The red panel on the underwing is on average less extensive than in CP.
5.It seems to me that the Eilat bird (perched photo) has a some extent of purplish gloss to the black primaries. This is another good feature for ACP.
Another point worth relating to is the difference between the darker outer web of the inner primaries to the paler distal part inner web. It says that on ACP this difference appear on minority of birds only, but when it does, it is easier to detect it than in CP due to the blacker outer web which accentuate the contrast. I can only point out that on the Eilat bird, the contrast is well visible (perched bird photo) and thus fits as well.

Still – also if we do talk about Afrotropical Collard Pratincole, two features remains unusal:
1.Distinctly shorter tail compare to wing tip
2.Really long legs.

Any thoughts are welcome, interesting stuff!

cheers
Barak

Hi Barak and all,

as Yoav already pointed regarding the bird we (Martin Garner, Neil Glenn and I) had at K20 on April 2nd, there is one more feature which was very obvious on that bird:
the first thing that caught my eye on the April bird was the fact that it seemed very small headed and very small in general. as written so well in Martin's website, we were having thoughts of it being OP on the site and only when it flew, did we rule it out for the distinct trailing edge and long tail.

In a recent remark Martin got from Gerald Driessens, he writes:

"At first glance, I thought "hm, this is going to be another Oriental", immediately followed by other opinions when scrolling down to the flight picture.
As you mentioned in your mail, indeed there's quite a lot suggesting Afrotropical Collared.
Not only the darker colour, but also the more capped effect, warmer colour, strong gape line, the lack of a white border inside the dark throat surround... Also the flight picture suggests the same.

Problem is that lookalikes exist in the race pratincola, but is is a real marked individual.

One thing that puzzles me, is the jizz of this bird, I never came upon pictures or live birst giving this Oriental feeling with short, peaked head and (as far as the photo's show) a rather upright stance.

As well as Afrotropical is somewhat intermediate between pratincola and maldivarum, it could as well be possible that a somewhat different looking population exists somewhere in Asia...
I remember observations of a flock of breeding 'Orientals' showing quite long tail stremaers (was it by you Lars? Or by Arnoud perhaps...)
In the Stockholm museum, there was also an Oriental showing tail streamers outside the range of Oriental (or at least, outside what we call 'the range' ...
...But what is an Afrotropical Collared doing in Israel in April...?"

Itai