Small Pratincole

The small pratincole is a small wader only 16.5–18.5cm long with a wingspan of 42–48cm, and in flight it can briefly be mistaken for a swift or swallow. It has short legs, long pointed wings, a short tail and a short bill suited to catching insects in the air. On the ground it looks mainly pale grey, as its scientific name, meaning milky, suggests, with a brown crown. The wings are grey above with black primaries and a black-and-white bar on the rear edge, and mainly black below; the white tail has a black triangle at the tip (Wikipedia, general species account).

Although classed as a wader it usually hunts insects on the wing like a swallow, often near water in the evening, and it can also feed on the ground. It is a bird of open country, breeding from December to March on gravel or sand banks near rivers and lakes and laying two to four eggs in a ground scrape. In India it is resident with a large range. SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 63% and rates it a Moderate conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).