The spur-winged lapwing or spur-winged plover (''Vanellus spinosus'') is a

lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, one of a group of largish

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s in the family

Charadriidae The bird family Charadriidae includes the plovers, dotterels, and lapwings, about 64 to 68 species in all. Taxonomy The family Charadriidae was introduced (as Charadriadæ) by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the con ...

. It is one of several species of wader supposed to be the "trochilus" bird said by

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

to have been involved in an unattested cleaning symbiosis with the

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern, ...

Distribution

The spur-winged lapwing breeds around the eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, and in a wide band from sub- Saharan west

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 ...

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

. The

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Turkish breeders are migratory, but other populations are resident. The species is declining in its northern range, but is abundant in much of tropical Africa, being seen at almost any wetland habitat in its range. The spur-winged lapwing is one of the species to which the ''

Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, or African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) is an independent international treaty developed under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme's Conventio ...

'' applies. In eastern and southern Africa the species has seen a range increase, entering

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

for the first time in 1999 and spreading south and west.

Description

These are conspicuous and unmistakable

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s. They are medium-large waders with black crown, chest, foreneck stripe and tail. The face, the rest of the neck and belly are white and the wings and back are light brown. The bill and legs are black. Its striking appearance is supplemented by its noisy nature, with a loud ''did-he-do-it'' call. The bird's common name refers to a small

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...

or spur hidden in each of its wings.

Ecology and behaviour

This species has a preference for marshes and similar freshwater wetland habitats. The food of the spur-winged lapwing is

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s and other invertebrates, which are picked from the ground. It lays four blotchy yellowish eggs on a ground scrape. The spur-winged lapwing is known to sometimes use the wing-claws in an attack on animals and, rarely, people, who get too close to the birds' exposed offspring.

Supposed cleaning symbiosis

The "spur-winged plover" was identified by

Henry Scherren Henry James Wilson Scherren (10 February 1843 – 25 April 1911), usually known as Henry Scherren or in encyclopaedia articles as H. Sc. was the author of various books on natural history for adults and children, with notable illustrations inclu ...

as the "trochilus" bird said by the Greek historian

to be involved in what would now be called a cleaning symbiosis with the

. However, there is no reliable evidence that this or any other species in fact has such a relationship, although Cott does record that spur-winged plovers are the birds that most often feed around basking crocodiles, and are tolerated by them.Cott, H. B. (1961). Scientific results of an inquiry into the ecology and economic status of the Nile Crocodile (''Crocodilus niloticus'') in Uganda and Northern Rhodesia. ''Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 29'', 211-356

/ref>

Gallery

File:Vanellus spinosus egg.jpg, Egg in nest File:Vanellus spinosus MHNT.jpg, Egg - MHNT File:Spur-winged lapwing chick.jpg, Chick File:Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosus) (21152292885).jpg, Adult File:Spur-winged lapwing (Vanellus spinosus) in flight.jpg, Upper side of wings - note the spurs on the leading edge of the carpal joint File:Vanellus spinosus, Yeruham Park, israel.jpg, Underside of wings File:Spur-wingedPlover-withTongue.jpg, alt=, In Northern Israel, squawking at anyone or anything that came near its chick - showing its tongue. File:Spur-wingedPlover-withChick.jpg, alt=, In Northern Israel squawking at anyone (or anything) who came near its chick, which can be seen taking cover behind the tractor wheel.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q749126 spur-winged lapwing Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa Birds of the Middle East spur-winged lapwing spur-winged lapwing