Sociable Lapwing

Vanellus gregarius (Pallas, 1771)

27–30 cmLength70 cmWingspan224 gWeight

This medium-sized lapwing has a black crown and eyestripe and earthy-yellow cheeks in adult breeding plumage.

Busiest months: November · Most records: United Arab Emirates, Spain, Kuwait

Looks like White-tailed Lapwing

Critically Endangered

How to identify

Field marks

Adults have a black crown and a black eyestripe that narrows behind the eye
Adults in breeding plumage have earthy-yellow cheeks
Adults have black primaries and white secondaries
Short black bill; black legs and feet

Male, female and young

Sexes similar, with the female slightly paler on the crown and belly; juveniles have edged back feathers and only traces of the head markings.

Voice

A harsh “kereck”.

Similar species

White-tailed Lapwing

Sociable Lapwing has stripes on the crown and dark legs and feet; White-tailed Lapwing has yellow legs and feet and an unstriped head.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: November · Most records: United Arab Emirates, Spain, Kuwait

Sociable Lapwing has been recorded at 84 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 28 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

United Arab Emirates Spain Kuwait United Kingdom Portugal Israel Azerbaijan Kazakhstan

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The sociable lapwing (Vanellus gregarius), referred to as the sociable plover in the UK, is a wader in the plover family. It is a fully migratory bird, breeding in Kazakhstan and wintering in the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and Sudan with a very small wintering population in Iberia. Historical literature referred to this bird as the black-bellied lapwing.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Sociable Lapwing?

The Sociable Lapwing is about 27–30 cm long, with a wingspan of 70 cm and weighs around 224 g.

Where does the Sociable Lapwing live?

Its breeding range: Palearctic: inland northern Kazakhstan and adjacent southern Russia (formerly Ukraine to Xinjiang [northwestern China]). It is most often recorded in United Arab Emirates, Spain and Kuwait.