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. The genus name Vanellus is Medieval Latin for a lapwing and derives from vannus a winnowing fan. The specific leucurus is from Ancient Greek leukouros, "white-tailed".^[2]

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.

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 the Indian Subcontinent, 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.

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

Gallery

• 
  near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.
• 
  at Sultanpur National Park in Gurgaon District of Haryana, India.
• 
  at Sultanpur National Park in Gurgaon District of Haryana, India.
• 
  near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.
• 
  near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.

References

1. BirdLife International (2012). "Vanellus leucurus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
2. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 225, 397. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.

External links

• BirdLife species factsheet for Vanellus leucurus
• "Vanellus leucurus". Avibase.
  
• "White-tailed lapwing media". Internet Bird Collection.
• White-tailed lapwing photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Interactive range map of Vanellus leucurus at IUCN Red List maps
• Audio recordings of White-tailed lapwing on Xeno-canto.
• Vanellus leucurus in the Flickr: Field Guide Birds of the World
• White-tailed lapwing media at ARKive