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The black-winged lapwing or greater black-winged lapwing (''Vanellus melanopterus'') is an east
Black-winged lapwings hunt
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q372606 black-winged lapwing Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa black-winged lapwing black-winged lapwing
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n species that is found from the Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
n highlands in the north to central Kenya
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(race ''V. m. melanopterus''), and again at middle to coastal elevations in eastern South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
(race ''V. m. minor''). It is a habitat specialist of short grass in well-watered temperate grasslands. They may move about locally to find ideal situations, often at night. In their tightly grouped flying flocks
Flocking is the behaviour exhibited when a group of birds, called a flock, are foraging or in flight.
Computer simulations and mathematical models that have been developed to emulate the flocking behaviours of birds can also generally be applie ...
they resemble plovers
Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae.
Description
There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subfa ...
.
Description
A black breast band separates the lapwing's grey head and neck from the white underside. The wing coverts are brown. It has a variable but prominent white forehead patch similar to its near relative, the Senegal lapwing, but in contrast shows a prominent white wingbar in flight, bordered by black remiges. The two species are also separated by their respective habitat preferences, the Senegal lapwing preferring lower, mostly drier locations.Habits and breeding
The black-winged lapwing behaves somewhat like the similar-sized but more generally occurring crowned lapwing and the two species sometimes occur in mixed flocks. The leg colour brightens during the spring breeding season, when the birds sometimes move to higher elevations. Males show mutual aggression at this time and establish territories by calling and display flights which may include exaggerated wing beats. A receptive female will follow the male in flight and copulation may follow soon after. The top of a slope in burnt grassland is a favourite location for nesting. The eggs are fairly large and dark in colour. Incubation starts when the clutch of usually 3 is complete. The adults relay one another in shifts of about 90 minutes. Insulating nest lining is added periodically to the well-lined nest until the eggs are half buried. The young hatch in just under a month and require about another month to become self-sufficient.Food and territories
Black-winged lapwings hunt termite
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...
s on the ground, which constitutes a large part of their diet. They also take tenebrionid beetles and ants, and in captivity prefer earthworms and mealworms. Feeding territories of smaller than one hectare are defended by small groups of these birds. Newly found territories are most aggressively defended through vocal and visual threat displays or aerial mobbing. Large groups however form non-territorial flocks when ample habitat is found.
Conservation status
Human activities impact both positively and negatively on this species; it is notendangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
. The black-winged lapwing is one of the species to which the ''Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds'' ( AEWA) applies.
References
# # Hockey P.A.R., Douie C. 1995. ''Waders of southern Africa'' # Marchant J., Prater T., Hayman P. 1986. ''Shorebirds: An identification guide'' # Sinclair I., Ryan P. 2003. ''Birds of Africa south of the Sahara'' # Tarboton W. 2001. ''Nests & Eggs of Southern African Birds'' # Ward, D. ''Black-winged Plover''. In: ''The atlas of southern African birds''. Vol. 1: Non-passerinesExternal links
* Black-winged ploverSpecies text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q372606 black-winged lapwing Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa black-winged lapwing black-winged lapwing