The Collared Pratincole flies swiftly and catches insects on the wing in morning and evening flocks. It nests colonially on dry mud near water during breeding.
In breeding plumage, the upperparts are olive brown, the buff throat has a black border, and the tail is deeply forked. Outside breeding, pale tawny feather margins make the head and chest look mottled.
Researchers monitored 315 Collared Pratincole nests in agricultural habitats of eastern Hungary’s Nagykunság region from 2012 to 2021. Forty-eight percent were in row crops, 29% in fallow fields, and 23% in spring cover crops.
Overall, 67% of the 315 nests hatched at least one chick. Hatching occurred at 75% of nests in fallow fields, 69% in spring cover crops, and 62% in row crops. Of 159 nests given a temporary protection zone from machinery, 64% produced at least one chick.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Temporary nest markers protected 150 nests that otherwise would have been destroyed by farm machinery. Among nests with known failure causes, predation was most common, followed by abandonment and flooding after heavy rain.