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Black-winged Lapwing
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Black-winged Lapwing
Vanellus melanopterus
The black-winged lapwing. black-winged plover or greater black-winged lapwing (Vanellus melanopterus) is an east African species that is found from the Ethiopian highlands in the north to central Kenya (race V. m. melanopterus), and again at middle to coastal elevations in eastern South Africa (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 they resemble plovers.
From the article Black-winged lapwing on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
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.
At the table
Black-winged lapwings hunt termites 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.
Wikipedia: “Food and territories”
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Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
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Every page naming Vanellus melanopterus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 4864.