June 19, 2013
We saw it on our birding trip to Spain.
The common name of this bird arises from the distinctive band of black plumage that runs around the throat, from eye to eye, giving the appearance of a necklace or a collar. The rest of the head, and also the back, are a sandy brown , and the belly and rump are white . The black, forked tail and dark brown wings are long and narrow , and the wings have rust-coloured linings. The short, hooked beak is black with a red base. There is little to distinguish male collared pratincoles from females and, for both sexes, breeding adults have cream-coloured throats.
Juveniles lack the distinctive head decorations of the adults, and also differ in the plumage of the back, which has a scaled pattern.