Northern lapwing

Description

The northern lapwing reaches about the size of a pigeon at 28 to 31 centimeters in body length, and has a wingspan of 70 to 80 centimeters. Adult northern lapwings have a shimmering metallic green-gray mantle with a blue-purple shoulder patch. The belly is white in colour with a black, sharply defined breast band. The head is white with a black forehead that ends in a long two-tipped cap, called a Holle. Starting from the black beak, a blurred black band runs under the eye to the back of the head. The abdomen is washed out sandy to rusty orange in colour. In nuptial plumage, the male differs from the female only by a longer crest, a somewhat more intense black colouration, and the continuous throat patch. For a plover, northern lapwings have comparatively short legs, which are coloured dark red to brown.

In basic plumage, the chin and fore-neck are white in both sexes. The feathers of the upper hand coverts and shoulders are fringed with pale yellowish brown, creating a scale-like pattern. The crest is noticeably shorter than in breeding plumage. Juvenile lapwings look like adults in basic plumage, but also have broader, yellow-brown feather fringes as well as a distinctly lighter, brown-coloured breast band.

Northern lapwings breed primarily in open, flat landscapes with short grass or no grass at all, in meadows and pastures, preferably along the edges of water bodies, on wet meadows, heaths and moors. Northern lapwings also breed in fields. During winter and the migratory season, the birds also stay in harvested fields and plowed fields. In winter, northern lapwings can be seen widely dispersed on old pastures, but also as troops on muddy areas.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiebitz_(Art)). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 17 December 2021