Pratincoles and coursers | Glareolidae

Vorkstaartplevieren | Canasteras y corredores

A short, arched bill with a wide gape links two very different ways of living within one family: species that snatch insects out of the air on long pointed wings and a forked tail, and species that run on long legs over bare ground and pick up prey as they go. All of them belong to dry, open country — steppe, dried mud, sandy river banks — and the hind toe is small or absent. Two to four well-camouflaged eggs are laid on the bare ground without nesting material, in the aerial feeders often in colonies. The chicks are on their feet at once but are still fed by their parents for weeks.