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Northern Lapwing

Northern Lapwing

Vanellus vanellus

Identify the Northern Lapwing by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Northern Lapwing, or Peewit, is a widespread Eurasian wader, black and white with a green-purple sheen on the back and a long, wispy crest. It is especially conspicuous in spring, when males perform tumbling display flights with loud “pee-wit” calls. Most populations migrate in flocks to winter in western and southern Europe, North Africa and Asia. It has declined in much of Europe with agricultural intensification.

Did you know?

  • Its nickname “peewit” imitates its call.
  • It “charms” worms to the surface by trembling one foot on the ground.

Voice

Song

About the species

Identification

Easily recognised by its long, thin crest, black-and-white plumage (the back glossed green at close range) and broad, round-tipped wings. In flight the wings look large and rounded, with black-and-white underwings, and the flight is slow and flapping. Its call is a long, high-pitched, mewing “pee-wit”.

Family

Charadriidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

black, white, green, orange

About the habitat

Open, wet farmland and pastures, damp meadows, floodplains, marsh edges and coastal flats with short vegetation and bare patches; ploughed and stubble fields on migration and in winter.

Diet

Mainly earthworms, beetles, insect larvae, flies, spiders and small molluscs taken from soft ground; occasionally seeds. It often feeds with Golden Plovers and Black-headed Gulls and forages at night by moonlight.

Behaviour

Feeds by walking, picking and foot-trembling on damp soil to bring worms to the surface. In spring males perform high, looping display flights with sudden twists and rolls, their wings throbbing. It nests in a shallow scrape on open ground and fiercely defends its nest and chicks with dive-bombing and distraction displays. It migrates by day in flocks and gathers in large winter flocks.

Sources

Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Northern-Lapwing-Vanellus-vanellus.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC919264, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/919264

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_lapwing

See also