[Species] | Northern lapwing
The Northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) is a usally highly migratory bird with an extensive list of brilliant common names, including peewit, pewit, tuit, tew-it, green plover or pyewipe. Most of it’s range is located in Europe, but there are isolated populations all over the world, including parts of Africa, North America and Asia.
They don’t exhibit sexual dimorphism, and thus both sexes range in length from 28 to 31 centimetres, have wingspans inbetween 82 and 87 centiemtres and a weight somewhere from 128 to 330 grams. These birds have rounded iridescent greenish-purple wings and a crest, short-legs in comparison to their relatives, and a mainly black and white plumage colouration.
Breeding habitats can include a variety of open habitats, preferably with bare ground or only low vegetation. Outside of breeding season they can be seen in wetlands, marshes, heaths, cultivated fields, harvested fields, and old pastures.
Northern lapwings are relatively vocal birds, and communicate using a variety of songs, as territorial calls, contact- or threat-alarm calls or to announce that they’re leaving/entering their nest.
Inidivuals forage by walking along the ground, searching for invertebrates. They are usually highly gregarious during migration or in the winter in general, often being found in large foraging flocks that can include other species. Northern lapwings will feed both during day and at night time, the kind of invertebrates they feed on switching depending on the time of day.
Breeding season ranges from April to July, but they return to their breeding grounds as early as January, usually within 50 km of where they were born. The female lays a total of four days, over a period of usually 6 days, with one egg being laid every 1.5 days. This is done to avoid the entire clutch being destroyed, as these birds often fall victim to nest predators. After that the eggs are incubated for around 25 days and the chicks are raised by both parents.
Due to habitat destruction, oil pollution and predation by introduced mammals such as foxes and cats their populations are suffering declines. The IUCN currently lists this species as Near Threatened, expecting to see greater declines in the near futre.
Photo credits: Bram Reinders, Paula Darwinkel, Nigel Blake, Andrej Chudý, Kimmo Järvinen