White-tailed Lapwing

White-tailed Lapwing
near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Charadriidae
Genus:	Vanellus
Species:	V. leucurus
Binomial name
Vanellus leucurus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Synonyms
Charadrius leucurus Lichtenstein, 1823 Chettusia leucura (Lichtenstein, 1823) Vanellochettusia leucura (Lichtenstein, 1823)

The White-tailed Lapwing or White-tailed Plover (Vanellus leucurus) is a wader in the lapwing genus.

It breeds semi-colonially on inland marshes in Iraq, Iran and southern Russia. Four eggs are laid in a ground nest. The Iraqi and Iranian breeders are mainly residents, but Russian birds migrate south in winter to south Asia, the Middle East and north east Africa. It is a very rare vagrant in western Europe, the first example in Britain being found at Packington, Warwickshire on 12 July 1975.

This medium-sized lapwing is long-legged and fairly long-billed. It is the only lapwing likely to be seen in other than very shallow water, where it picks insects and other small prey mainly from the surface.

Adults are slim erect birds with a brown back and foreneck, paler face and grey breast. Its long yellow legs, pure white tail and distinctive brown, white and black wings make this species unmistakable. Young birds have a scaly back, and may show some brown in the tail.

The breeding season call is a peewit, similar to Northern Lapwing.

The White-tailed Lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

References

1. ^ Bird, J. & Butchart, S. (BirdLife International Red List Authority) (2008). Vanellus leucurus. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 2009-02-03.

• White-tailed Plover: new to Britain and Ireland A. R. Dean, J. E. Fortey and E. G. Phillips, British Birds 70:465–471 (November 1977)
• Hayman, Marchant and Prater, Shorebirds ISBN 0-7099-2034-2

Gallery

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  near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.

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  at/ near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.

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  at Sultanpur National Park in Gurgaon District of Haryana, India.

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  at Sultanpur National Park in Gurgaon District of Haryana, India.

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  near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.

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  near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.

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