|
Distinctive
wading bird with a broad breast band. Commonly known as peewit or green plover.
In spring
lapwings have a tumbling display flight and distinctive perr-u-weet-weet call.
Has a more distinctive loud excited pee-wit call which rises in pitch on second
note.
Feeds in stop-start manner,
taking invertebrates (earthworms, small snails, beetles, earwigs, spiders),
insects and seeds. Chicks feed on small beetles, flies and insect larvae. Breeding is from
Late March to early July. Nests on open ground with short or no vegetation,
which are either solitary or in small groups. Usually four
eggs are laid, slightly pointed at one
end. These are streaked and blotched on a
stone coloured ground and difficult to see. After
twenty-six days incubation, chicks are well developed and able to walk and feed
themselves
Parents with chicks are
particularly aggressive, mobbing anything that looks remotely like a
predator and feigning injury if all else fails. It attempts to entice predators
away from its young by feigning injury such as trailing one wing along the
ground as if broken.
Worms are
captured by an intriguing method. The lapwing patters about on the ground,
imitating the sound of falling raindrops. Vibrations in the earth cause the
worms to surface.
|
