Yellow-wattled Lapwing

Yellow-wattled Lapwing
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Charadriidae
Genus:	Vanellus
Species:	V. malabaricus
Binomial name
Vanellus malabaricus (Boddaert, 1783)
Synonyms
Charadrius malabaricus Charadrius malarbaricus (lapsus) Hoplopterus malabaricus Lobipluvia malabarica Lobipluria malabarica (lapsus) Sarciophorus malabaricus Sarciophorus bilobus

The Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Vanellus malabaricus, is a lapwing, a group of medium sized waders in the family Charadriidae. It is a non-migratory breeder restricted to the Indian Subcontinent and is found on the dry plains. Although they do not migrate, they are known to make seasonal movements in response to rains. Like other lapwings and plovers, they are ground birds and their nest is a mere collection of tiny pebbles within which their well camouflaged eggs are laid. The chicks are nidifugous, leaving the nest shortly after hatching and following their parents to forage for food.

Description

From Goa, India

These are conspicuous and unmistakable birds found in dry stony and open grassland or scrub habitats. They are medium-sized pale brown waders with a black crown which is separated from the brown on the neck by a narrow white band and large yellow facial wattles. The chin and throat are black and the brown neck and upper breast is separated from the white belly by a narrow blackish line. The tail has a subterminal black band which does not extend into the outer tail-feathers. There is a white wingbar on the inner half of the wing. The bill is yellow at the base. They have tiny yellow carpal spurs. The crown feathers can be raised slightly in displays. They are mostly sedentary but populations make long distance movements in response to the monsoons. They are occasional visitors to the Katmandu valley in Nepal.^[2][3][4]

There are no recognized races, but there is a size increase from south to north. They are 260-280mm long with a wing of 192-211mm, bill 23-26mm, tarsus 57-66mm and tail 71-84mm. Juveniles have a brown crown and the sexes are alike but males have slightly longer wings and tarsi. The call is a sharp tchee-it call.^[3]

Local names include Zirdi in Hindi, Chitawa in Telugu and Jithiri in Rajasthan.^[5] It is called Jithiri in Pakistan, Pili tatihri in Punjabi, Laori in Madhya Pradesh, Parasna titodi or Vagdau titodi in Gujarati, Pitmukhi titvi in Marathi, Manjakanni in Malayalam, Haladi tittibha in Kannada and Kiraluwa in Sinhalese.^[6]

Habitat and distribution

This species is common in much of India, being seen in a variety of open lowland habitats. It tends to be seen in drier habitats than the Red-wattled Lapwing, Vanellus indicus. They are found in most parts of India, parts of Pakistan^[7] Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They make short distance movements in response to rain but the exact pattern is not known.^[4]

Behaviour and ecology

These lapwings breed in the dry season with peak breeding in March to May ahead of the monsoons.^[8][9] They lay four eggs in a ground scrape.^[10] A nest in a clump of grass has been noted as exceptional.^[11] Parents visit water and wet their breast feathers ("belly soaking"; they may stay for as much as 10 minutes to soak water^[12] ) which may then be used to cool the eggs or chicks.^[13] The four eggs typically hatch simultaneously, even though they are laid with a difference of a few days.^[14] The nidifugous young are well camouflaged as they forage with the parents. Chicks squat flat on the ground and freeze when parents emit an alarm call. A second brood may be raised, particularly when the first fails and young from a previous brood have been seen along with parent birds incubating a second clutch.^[15] Simultaneous courtship displays among several pairs in close proximity has been noted.^[16] In one study more than 60% of the nests had 4 eggs-clutches with the rest having 3 eggs. Hatching success was found to be about 27.58% and egg loss was due to predation and nest damage. The incubation period was 27–30 days. When the nests are approached, the incubating bird attempts to move away from the nest without drawing attention to it.^[17]

The food of the Yellow-wattled Lapwing is beetles, termites and other invertebrates, which are picked from the ground.^[5] The feather mite Magimelia dolichosikya has been noted as an ectoparasite of this species.^[18]

References

1. ^ BirdLife International (2008). Vanellus malarbaricus. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 2 Oct 2009.
2. ^ Johns, A. D., & R. I. Thorpe (1981). "On the occurrence of long-distance movement in the Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Vanellus (=Lobipluvia) malabaricus (Boddaert)". Journal of Bombay Natural Hist. Soc. 78: 597–598. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Hayman, P., J. Marchant, T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds: an identification guide to the waders of the world. Croom Helm. pp. 263–264. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Ali, S & S D Ripley (1980). Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. 2 (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 218–219. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Jerdon, TC (1864). The Birds of India. Vol 3. George Wyman and Co. pp. 649–650. http://ww.archive.org/details/birdsofindiabein03jerd. 
6. ^ Anonymous (1998). "Vernacular names of birds of the Indian Subcontinent" (PDF). Buceros 3 (1): 53–108. http://www.bnhsenvis.nic.in/pdf/vol%203%20(1).pdf. 
7. ^ Mirza Muhammad Azam (2004). "Avifaunal Diversity of Hingol National Park" (PDF). Rec. Zool. Surv. Pakistan 15: 7–15. http://www.zsd.gov.pk/images/records/2004/ZSD(XV)--7-15(2004).pdf. 
8. ^ Jayakar, SD; Spurway, H (1965). "The Yellow-wattled Lapwing, a tropical dry-season nester [Vanellus malabaricus (Boddaert), Charadriidae]. I. The locality, and the incubatory adaptations". Zool. Jahrb. Syst. Bd. 92: 53–72. 
9. ^ Jayakar, SD; Spurway, H (1968). "The Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Vanellus malabaricus (Boddaert), a tropical dry-season nester. III. Two further seasons' breeding". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 65 (2): 369–383. 
10. ^ George,NJ (1985). "On the parental care of Yellow-wattled Lapwing Vanellus malabaricus". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 82 (3): 655–656. 
11. ^ Vijayagopal, K; Chacko, Stephen (1991). "Hitherto unrecorded nesting site of Yellow-wattled Lapwing Vanellus malabaricus (Boddaert)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 88 (3): 451. 
12. ^ Maclean,GL (1974). "Belly-soaking in the Charadriiformes". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 72 (1): 74–82. 
13. ^ Jayakar, SD; Spurway, H (1964). "Lapwings wetting their breasts". Newsletter for Birdwatchers 4 (8): 5. 
14. ^ Jayakar, SD; Spurway, H (1965). "The Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Vanellus malabaricus (Boddaert), a tropical dry-season nester. II. Additional data on breeding biology". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 62 (1): 1–14. 
15. ^ Jayakar, SD; Spurway, Helen (1964). "Chick of a first brood accompanying a subsequent incubation". Newsletter for Birdwatchers 4 (9): 12. http://www.archive.org/stream/NLBW4#page/n120/mode/1up/. 
16. ^ Gadagkar, V., Shyamal L., NV Arakeri, M. Ramakrishnan & U. Raghavan (1999). "Communal courtship in Yellow-wattled Lapwing". Newsletter for Birdwatchers 39 (4): 66–67. http://www.archive.org/stream/NLBW39_4#page/n13/mode/1up/. 
17. ^ Sethi, VK; Dinesh Bhatt and Amit Kumar (2010). "Hatching success in Yellow-wattled Lapwing Vanellus malabaricus". Indian Birds 5 (5): 139–142. 
18. ^ Jacek Dabert,Serge V. Mironov, Rainer Ehrnsberger (2002). "A revised diagnosis of the feather mite genus Magimelia Gaud, 1961 (Pterolichoidea: Pterolichidae: Magimeliinae) and the description of three new species". Systematic Parasitology 53 (1): 69–79. doi:10.1023/A:1019957822743. PMID 12378135. 

Other sources

• Dhindsa,MS (1983): Yellow-wattled Lapwing: a rare species in Haryana and Punjab. Pavo 21(1&2), 103-104.
• Jayakar,SD; Spurway,H (1965): Interference with a nest site of the Yellow-wattled Lapwing. Newsletter for Birdwatchers 5(6), 5.
• Jayakar,SD; Spurway,H (1965): Interference with a nest site of the Yellow-wattled Lapwing. Newsletter for Birdwatchers 5(8), 6-7.
• Janaki Rama Rao, N., Vikramrka, A. & Chari, N. (1983). Flight characteristics, moment of inertia of the wing and flight behaviour of yellow-wattled lapwing Lobipluvia malabarica (Boddaert). Comp. Physiol. Ecol. 8, 1–4.

External links

• Mangoverde