Vanellus indicus
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The red-wattled lapwing (Vanellus indicus) is an Asian lapwing or large plover, a wader in the family Charadriidae. Like other lapwings they are ground birds that are incapable of perching. Their characteristic loud alarm calls are indicators of human or animal movements and the sounds have been variously rendered as did he do it or pity to do it leading to the colloquial name of did-he-do-it bird. Usually seen in pairs or small groups not far from water, they sometimes form large aggregations in the non-breeding season (winter). They nest in a ground scrape laying three to four camouflaged eggs. Adults near the nest fly around, diving at potential predators while calling noisily. The cryptically patterned chicks hatch and immediately follow their parents to feed, hiding by lying low on the ground or in the grass when threatened.
Traditionally well known to native hunters, the red-wattled lapwing was first described in a book by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1781. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walsrode World Bird Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Al Ain Zoo | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 3 | Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden | 🇮🇳 India |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Red-wattled Lapwing sighting in Aligarh on a given day, based on 151 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 12th most-seen of the 94 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and August
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Red-wattled Lapwing in Aligarh on a given day, against about 30% in October, the lowest month. Those are among Aligarh's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain a month against almost none in November. July has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-wattled Lapwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
19th of 78
Of the 78 cities where we can rate Red-wattled Lapwing sightings, Aligarh ranks 19th at about 50%. The best odds are in Kota (India, about 90%), Ludhiana (India, about 80%) and Bhopal (India, about 80%).
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Red-wattled Lapwing that you can see in Aligarh (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Black-winged Stilt (about 20%), Bronze-winged Jacana (about 10%) and Common Sandpiper (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-wattled Lapwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Aligarh (151 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
