Northern Lapwing

The Northern Lapwing is a distinctive, unmistakable plover with a long, wispy black crest, broad rounded wings, and glossy upperparts that shimmer green, purple, and bronze in good light. Its underparts are white with a black breast band, and it shows warm buff-orange undertail coverts.

In flight its wings appear broad, rounded, and almost floppy—quite unlike the pointed wings of most other shorebirds—and this distinctive flight silhouette, combined with its tumbling display flights, has made it a familiar and much-loved farmland bird across much of Europe and Asia.

Despite once being extremely common, agricultural intensification has driven significant population declines in many parts of its range.

Key field marks

• Long, thin, upward-curling black crest
• Iridescent green-black upperparts with purple and bronze sheen
• Black breast band contrasting with white underparts
• Warm orange-buff undertail coverts
• Broad, rounded, black-and-white wings, obvious in flight

Similar species

• No other widespread shorebird shares its crest and iridescent plumage; Sociable Lapwing and other Vanellus species lack the long crest and have different head patterns, and occur in different regions.

Northern Lapwings breed on farmland, wet meadows, moorland, and other open habitats across temperate Europe and Asia. Northern and continental populations are migratory, wintering on farmland, coastal grasslands, and estuaries further south and west, including in Britain, western Europe, North Africa, and southern Asia; milder-climate populations may be resident.

The species has declined substantially in many agricultural landscapes due to changes in farming practices that reduce suitable nesting habitat and food availability.

Voice

A distinctive, wheezy, nasal pee-wit or pee-wee-wit, the source of its old folk name "peewit," along with a wilder, more excited squealing during display flights.

Feeding

Forages on open ground for earthworms, insect larvae, and other invertebrates, using a run-stop-peck technique; often feeds in loose flocks, sometimes alongside golden-plovers.

Nesting

Males perform spectacular tumbling, rolling display flights over breeding territories, accompanied by wing-produced humming sounds and calling. Nests are shallow scrapes on open ground; both parents defend eggs and chicks vigorously, mobbing predators including crows and raptors.