Vol. 5 JUNE 15, 1973 No.1

The Oriental in New South Wales By J. N. HOBBS, Ivanhoe, and A. R . McGILL, Moorebank. New South Wales Prior to 1971 the only recorded evidence of the Oriental Pratin­ cole, maldivarum, in New South Wales refers to an immature male obtained at Botany Bay in July 1877. This is now a study skin, No. 0.18411 , in the collections of the Australian Museum. July is certainly a surprising time of the year for a migra­ tory species that should at that time be at its breeding grounds in eastern . However, it being a young could have influ­ enced its winter stayover in Australia, or its very late departure if it intended to travel north. Of course, some of our better-known visit­ ing , such as the Red-necked Stint, Calidris ruficollis, Bar­ tailed Godwit, Limosa lapponica, and Turnstone, Arenaria inter­ pres, are regularly seen in Australia during winter. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that after an interval of nearly a hundred years another occurrence can be put on record, which was only a week before the commencement of the southern winter. On May 22, 1971, we paid a visit to Baker's Lagoon, 35 miles north-west of Sydney, and had extended observations of an Oriental Pratincole which, by a careful check later with descriptions taken at the time, proved to be a male in full breeding plumage. We were able to keep it under observation for an hour or more, during which it was dis­ turbed many times but on each occasion flew slowly low over the water's edge and landed again on the lagoon margin nearby. Several photographs were taken but the light was too dull to achieve any real success although helpful fer identification. The typical buoyant flight of a pratincole was evident and the forked tail, white rump contrasting strongly with the brownish upper plumage, buff throat and black marginal line circling the upper breast clearly separated it from the Australian Pratincole, Glareola isabella. T he absence of black under-wing ruled out the possibility that it might be the Black­ wing Pratincole, G. nordmanni. Two other observers, A. Colemane and D. Stringfellow, drove out early the following morning and also had good views of what was presumed to be the same bird. but others who visited the area during the day could not locate it. We considered ourselves fortunate, therefore, to have seen such a rare species in southern Australia after a long period of time elaps­ ing since the only other record for New South Wales, regarding our HOBBS AND McG ILL [ Bird W alc he r

meeting with it to be a cha nce one of a lo ne bird passing thro ugh. T herefore, it is surprisi ng to a lso record a nother visitatio n by the species at the same locality, onl y a little more th a n six months after o ur May 1971 record . On December J I, 197 1, R. M. Cooper, a nd later, E. S. H oskin, re­ po rted a fl ock of 12 a t Ba ker's L agoon, and the fo llowing day a number of o bservers visited the a rea, it proving to be a " new" species to most of them. One of us (McGill) travell ed o ut in the after­ noon of December 12, with F. G. Johnston and A . Brinsley, and were joined th ere by J. Purne ll , wh o had been endeavo uring to secure photogra phs of th em with a 1.000 mm lens, but up to the time of o ur a rri va l was unsuccessful. T here were th en fi ve birds in the vicinity, but o ne of th ese a ppeared to keep aloof fro m th e other fo ur, which la tter a lm ost certa inly comprised a fa mil y party, one being in nea r-breeding plu­ mage, be li eved to be the ma le a lthough not so well-marked as the one seen in M ay, a noth er in duller breeding garb, pro ba bl y th e fe­ ma le. a nd the others being in immature or eclipse attire with no ev id ence of throat colo ur o r gorget, being ma inl y drab brown overa ll . with th e neck and facia l ma rkings mo re golden-brown . A ltho ugh hard to a pproach at first this fa mily pa rty settled down eventua ll y, a nd we were a ble to have ex tended views of th em while they rested o n th e grass-lined lagoon edge, a nd some photographs were .o bta ined. When the bird s squa tted in the hoof marks left in th e dried mud by fa rm a nimals, with th eir backs towa rds th e o bser­ ve r. they were perfectl y ca mo ufl aged and very difficult to see. Some o bservers a lm ost wa lked upo n th e bi rds befo re they fl ew, even th o ugh they we re watching carefull y fo r them at every step. Once in th e ai r. however. an Orienta l P ratincole is a relati vely easy bird to id entify. T hree birds we re repo rted at th e same pl ace at different dates until December 19, and o ne was noted on December 26. Abo ut this latter date the re had been hea vy ra in , and a seve re sto rm did con­ sid era ble da mage to some buildings nearby and the lagoon was fl ooded . No do ubt this caused th e unusua l asian visitors to leave, fo r witho ut mud-lined ma rgin s and in terruptio n by the fl ooding of th eir no rma l food req uirements, the habitat became unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, fo r a species tha t was known fo r so lo ng by a single record this latest occurrence, comprising up to 12 birds, is impo rtant to the State's avifa una! records. Altho ugh lo ng rega rded as being mo re likely to be fo und in no rthern Austra li a, it is stra nge to fi nd th at as recent as 1967 o ne record was known for th e No rthern T er­ rito ry (Storr. 1967) . H owever, fo ll owing upon th a t publica ti o n there were so me sur­ prising records made d uring late 1967 (Van T ets, 1969) at Tinda l RAAF Base nea r Katherine. wherein is stated ( p. 143) " .. . the th o usands of O ri enta l P ra tinco les which roosted a t night on the a ir­ fie ld. T hese sho rt-legged birds no rma ll y feed like swifts on the wi ng on fl ying at th e edges of tro pi cal cyclones. At nigh t they The Oriental Pratincole at Baker·s Lagoon. 35 miles north-west of Sydney Plate 2 Photo by J. Purnell

roosted on areas devoid of vegetation, e.g. large claypans and air­ fields. A few, not more than 20, were seen during the morning feed­ ing on the runway together with Australian and Oriental Dotterels. They appeared clumsy at foraging on the ground in com-' parison with the other two species which have much longer legs". On page 145 a Table gives the maximum number of insectivorous bird species seen on Tindal Airfield and this includes 6,000 Oriental Pratincoles. Queensland occurrences are certainly sporadic, but some more recent published records concern an estimated flock of 5,000 birds at Lake Moondara, Mount Isa (Carruthers, 1968); "180 +" near Atherton (Bravery, l 970), and several observations of up to nine birds from 1964-68 around Innisfail (Gill, 1970). The unusual visitation to New South Wales in 1971 coincided closely with the first known occurrence of the species in south-east Queensland . T his has been summarized by Chris Cor ben ( 1972). where about six observations were made during November and December, with a count of 27 birds the maximum. In Western Aus­ tralia little has been recorded and Point Cloates appears to be its known southern limits (Serventy and Whittell, 1967). H. T. Condon ( 1968, p. 51) mentions one specimen from South Australia. Although only recorded for the first time in Victoria in 1962 4 HOBBS AND McGILL [ Bird W atcher

(S mith 1963), when a flock of six was seen at Werribee, there is a subseq uent record of one bird observed during November 1964, at the same locality (Cooper, 1964, and Smith, 1967). All other records of this species during recent years I have been able to trace were in summer, so again this casts unusual importance on the one New South Wales specimen taken in July and our obser­ vations made in late May. A lthough the Oriental Pratincole was made a race of Glareola pratincola by the Checklist Committee in 1950 (Condon, 1950), fol­ lowing usual taxonomic practice at that time, it is noteworthy that Cha rles Vaurie (1965), who has studied the status of Asiatic birds closely, regards it as a good species, ma inly because of evidence that part of the respective breeding ranges of pratincola and maldi­ varum are sympatric. In his book, Birds of the Palearctic Fauna, it is listed as Clareola maldivarum, as has been done recently by other authors. T he use of the E ngli sh vernacular, Oriental Pratincole, of course refers onl y to maldivarum, and if the scientific specific name pratincola be used then the bird should be called correctly the Col­ lared Pratincole. REFERENCES Bravery, J. A .. 1970. "The Birds of Atherton Shire, Queensland", Emu, 70 : 49-63. Carruthers, R. K. , 1968. "Notes on an influx of O riental Pratincoles ·a tMountisa".Emu, 68: 216-217. Condon, H. T. (Convener), 1950. "Sixth Supplement to the Check­ list" . Emu, 50 : 132-134. Condon, H. T.. 1968. A Handlist of the Birds of South Australia, 2nd E dn. Cooper, R oy P., 1964. "The Oriental Pratincole near Melbourne" . A ustralian Bird Watcher, 2 : 111 -11 2. Corben. Chris. 1972. " Oriental Pratincoles in south-east Queens­ land " . Sunbird, 3 : 6-8. G ill. H. T .. 1970. " Birds of ]nnisfail and Hinterl and". Emu, 70 : 105-11 6. Serventy. D. L. and Whittell. H . M .. 1967. Birds of Western Aus­ tralia. 4th Edn. Smith. F. T. H .. 1963. "A Victorian R ecord of the Oriental Pratin­ cole". A ustralian Bird Watcher, 2: 4-5. Smith. F. T. H .. 1967. '· Records and Observations in Mid­ southern Victoria 1963-1965". Australian Bird Watcher, 3: 19- 29. Storr. G. M .. 1967. " List of No rthern Territory Birds" . Special Publication W estern Australian Museum, No.4. Van Tets. G. F., Yestjens. W. J. M . and Slater. E .. 1969. " Orange Runway L ightin_g as a Method for Reducing Bird Strike Damage to Aircraft". CSIRO Wildlife R esearch, 14 : 128-151. Vaurie. Cha rles. I 965. The Birds of t he Palearctic Fa una 2 .. London.