Vanellus albiceps
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The white-crowned lapwing, white-headed lapwing, white-headed plover or white-crowned plover (Vanellus albiceps) is a medium-sized wader. It is resident throughout tropical Africa, usually near large rivers. This lapwing is unmistakable. Its wings and tail are strikingly patterned in black and white, the back is brown and the underparts white. The head is particularly striking, being mainly grey, but with a white crown and foreneck. The eyering, facial wattles and legs are yellow. Females, males and young birds are similar in plumage.
It is a wader which breeds on exposed sand or shingle near rivers. 2–3 eggs are laid in a ground scrape. The nest and young are defended noisily and aggressively against all intruders, up to and including the hippopotamus.
Food is mainly insects and other small invertebrates. This species often feeds in small flocks when not breeding. The white-crowned lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater ISBN 0-7099-2034-2 White-crowned plover - Species... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 2 | Lower Zambezi National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 3 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 4 | Mana Pools National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 5 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 6 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 7 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Selous Game Reserve | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 11 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 12 | Liwonde National Park | 🇲🇼 Malawi | |
| 13 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 14 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a White-headed Lapwing sighting in Brazzaville on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 37th most-seen of the 82 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a White-headed Lapwing in Brazzaville on a given day, against about 20% in January–February and May, the lowest months. That is one of Brazzaville's driest months, with about 65 mm of rain against 280 mm in November. June has too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-headed 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.
Only Brazzaville, in our data
Brazzaville is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate White-headed Lapwing sightings: about 30% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the White-headed Lapwing that you can see in Brazzaville (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Common Sandpiper (about 40%) and African Jacana (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-headed Lapwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Brazzaville (23 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.
