It is a wader which 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.
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Description
This lapwing is a 28–31 cm long bird with a 67–72 cm wingspan, It has rounded wings and a crest. It is the shortest-legged of the lapwings. It is mainly black and white, but the back is tinted green. Females and young birds have narrower wings, and have less strongly marked heads, but plumages are otherwise quite similar.
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 (OED derives this from an Old English word meaning "to totter"), or from its habit of drawing potential predators away from its nest by trailing a wing as if broken.Peewit describes the bird's shrill call. This is a vocal bird in the breeding season, with constant calling as the crazed tumbling display flight is performed by the male.
It feeds primarily on mainly 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 are moonlit nights.
The Northern Lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Population decline
National surveys of England and Wales have shown a population decline between 1987 and 1998. 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 Stew
ardship Scheme. The organisation suggests an option within this scheme called 'Fallow plots for ground-nesting birds'. Uncropped plots at least 2 ha in size provide nesting habitat, and are located in suitable arable fields, which provide additional foraging habitat. Locating the plots within 2 km of extensively grazed grassland will provide additional foraging habitat. The plots is cultivated in the spring to produce a rough fallow, which is retained without the input of fertiliser or pesticides.
Cultural significance
Harvesting eggs
In the Netherlands there is a cultural-historical competition to finds the first peewit egg of the year (het eerste kievitsei). It is especially popular in Friesland province, but there are also regional competitions. The gathering of 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. As of 2006 it is again allowed to look for peewit eggs between 1 March and 9 April, though the actual harvest of those eggs is now forbidden. The first egg of 2008 was found on 3 March, in Eemnes, Utrecht, as was the first egg of 2009 found on 8 March. Over the last century, the first peewit egg is found earlier and earlier. This is caused both by increase use of fertiliser and climate change.
MythologyThe bird referred to in English translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses, book 6 (the story of King Tereus of Thrace, who rapes his wife's sister, Philomela, and cuts out her tongue), as lapwing 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.
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