Northern lapwing

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The northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), also known as the peewit or pewit, tuit or tewit, green plover, or (in Ireland and Great Britain) pyewipe or just lapwing, is a bird in the lapwing subfamily. It is common through temperate Eurosiberia.

TaxonomyEdit

The northern lapwing was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa vanellus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The species is now placed with the other lapwings in the genus Vanellus that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=ioc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The scientific name Vanellus is Medieval Latin for the northern lapwing and derives from vannus, a winnowing fan.<ref name=job>Template:Cite book</ref> The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.<ref name=ioc/>

The name lapwing has been variously attributed to the "lapping" sound its wings make in flight, from the irregular progress in flight due to its large wings (the Oxford English Dictionary derives this from an Old English word meaning "to totter"),<ref name=OED>Template:Cite OED</ref> or from its habit of drawing potential predators away from its nest by trailing a wing as if broken. The names peewit, pewit, tuit or tew-it are onomatopoeic and refer to the bird's characteristic call.<ref>Template:Cite dictionary</ref>

DescriptionEdit

File:Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) (W1CDR0001471 BD4).ogg

Display calls, Surrey, England

The northern lapwing is a Template:Convert long bird with a Template:Convert wingspan and a body mass of Template:Convert.<ref name=oiseaux-birds/> It has rounded wings and a crest. It is also the shortest-legged of the lapwings. It is mainly black and white, but the back is tinted green. The male has a long crest and a black crown, throat and breast contrasting with an otherwise white face. Females and young birds have shorter crests, and have less strongly marked heads, but plumages are otherwise quite similar.

This is a vocal bird in the breeding season, with constant calling as the crazed tumbling display flight is performed by the male. The typical contact call is a loud, shrill "pee-wit" from which they get their other name of peewit.<ref name=OED/> Displaying males usually make a wheezy "pee-wit, wit wit, eeze wit" during their display flight; these birds also make squeaking or mewing sounds.

BehaviourEdit

It is highly migratory over most of its extensive range, wintering further south as far as North Africa, northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and parts of China. It migrates mainly by day, often in large flocks. Lowland breeders in westernmost areas of Europe are resident. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America, especially after storms, as in the Canadian sightings after storms in December 1927 and in January 1966.<ref name=Godfrey/>

File:Vanellus vanellus mobbing Circus aeruginosus.jpg

A northern lapwing mobbing a Western marsh harrier near its nest

It is a wader that breeds on cultivated land and other short vegetation habitats. 3–4 eggs are laid in a ground scrape. The nest and young are defended noisily and aggressively against all intruders, up to and including horses and cattle.

In winter, it forms huge flocks on open land, particularly arable land and mud-flats.

It feeds primarily on insects and other small invertebrates. This species often feeds in mixed flocks with golden plovers and black-headed gulls, the latter often robbing the two plovers, but providing a degree of protection against predators.

Like the golden plovers, this species prefers to feed at night when there is moonlight.

The northern lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Tofsvipa (Vanellus vanellus) - 2017 -Ystad.jpg

In some years the species is more sociable and gathers in large flocks after breeding. In the picture, part of a large flock estimated at around 3,000 individuals on September 24, 2017 in Ystad.
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Flying
Alarmerende kievit in bloemrijk grasland-4961654.webm

Alarmed in flowery meadow on Texel, the Netherlands
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Chick in the Netherlands
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Egg – MHNT
Tofsvipa - Northern lapwing - (Vanellus vanellus) -Ystad-2023.jpg

A large flock flying by

Population declineEdit

National surveys of England and Wales have shown a population decline between 1987 and 1998, and since 2009 the northern lapwing has had red list conservation status in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The numbers of this species have been adversely affected by intensive agricultural techniques. In the lowlands this includes the loss of rough grassland, conversion to arable or improved grassland, loss of mixed farms, and switch from spring- to autumn-sown crops. In the uplands, the losses may have been due to increases in grazing density. Natural England gives grant aid to help restore lapwing habitat within its Environmental Stewardship Scheme. The organisation suggests an option within this scheme called 'Fallow plots for ground-nesting birds'. Uncropped plots at least Template:Convert in size provide nesting habitat and are located in suitable arable fields, which provide additional foraging habitat. Locating the plots within Template:Convert of extensively grazed grassland will provide additional foraging habitat. The plots are cultivated in the spring to produce a rough fallow, which is retained without the input of fertiliser or pesticides.<ref name=BTO/> In addition to agricultural intensification and land-use change, predation of nests and chicks contributes to wader declines, including of lapwing. By radio-tagging lapwing chicks, and using automatic radio tracking systems, the timing of chick predation can be revealed, which provides additional insights into the importance of different predators. Lapwing chicks are predated both in the day and at night, with mammalian predators having the greatest impact.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In Armenia, the population decline and loss of breeding habitats was also documented; the threats are thought to be intensification of land use and hunting, but further investigations for threat clarification are required.<ref name=ABCC/> In the Middle East, the northern lapwing is threatened by overhunting as it is shot in large quantities along its winter migration routes. Several photos surfacing from the region show many Northern lapwings, alongside other migratory birds including the threatened European turtle dove and European golden-plover.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cultural significanceEdit

File:Lapwing incubating its eggs - 1895 - Reginald Badham Lodge.jpg

Lapwing Incubating Its Eggs—A photograph for which in 1895 R. B. Lodge received from the Royal Photographic Society the first medal ever presented for nature photography. Eric Hosking and Harold Lowes stated their — incorrect — belief that this was the first photograph of a wild bird.<ref>Template:Cite q</ref> However, Ottomar Anschütz had photographed wild white storks (Ciconia ciconia) in 1884.<ref name="Cox">Template:Cite book</ref>

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Harvesting eggsEdit

"Plover's eggs" were an expensive delicacy in Victorian Europe, mentioned in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, about aristocratic British society in 1920–40. In the Netherlands, there is a cultural-historical competition to find the first peewit egg of the year (het eerste kievietsei). It is especially popular in the province Friesland, but there are also regional competitions. Gathering peewit eggs is prohibited by the European Union, but Friesland was granted an exception for cultural-historical reasons. The Frisian exception was removed in 2005 by a court, which determined that the Frisian executive councillors had not properly followed procedure.<ref name=Walinga2005/><ref name=court/> As of 2006 looking for peewit eggs is permitted between 1 March and 9 April, though harvesting the eggs is now forbidden. In 2008 the first egg was found on 3 March, in Eemnes, Utrecht,<ref name=NederlandseOmroepStichting/> and the first egg of 2009 was found on 8 March in Krabbendijke.<ref name=RadioNetherlands/> Over the last century, the first peewit egg has been found earlier and earlier in the year. This is ascribed to both increased use of fertiliser and climate change, causing the growth of grass needed for egg laying to occur earlier.<ref name=Natuurcompendium/>

In IrelandEdit

File:Portret van Filips II te paard, RP-P-1932-154.jpg

King Philip II with a feather in his cap.

The northern lapwing was declared the Republic of Ireland's national bird by a committee of the Irish Wildlife Conservancy in 1990.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the Irish language it is called pilibín, "little Philip", supposedly a reference to Philip II of Spain (King of Ireland 1554–58), who often wore a feather in his cap.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

MythologyEdit

The bird referred to in English translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses, book 6, as lapwing<ref name=Garth/> is probably the northern lapwing. Tereus is turned into an epops (6.674); Ovid presumably had the hoopoe in mind, whose crest indicates his royal status and whose long, sharp beak is a symbol of his violent nature.

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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