Vanellus cinereus
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The grey-headed lapwing (Vanellus cinereus) is a lapwing species which breeds in northeast China and Japan. The mainland population winters in northern Southeast Asia from northeastern India to Cambodia. The Japanese population winters, at least partially, in southern Honshū.
This species has occurred as a vagrant in Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, New South Wales, Australia, Telangana and Sri Lanka, as well as Sweden and England. The grey-headed lapwing is 34–37 cm long. It has a grey head and neck, darker grey breast band and white belly. The back is brown, the rump is white and the tail is black. This is a striking species in flight, with black primaries, white under wings and upper wing secondaries, and brown upper wing coverts.
Adults of both sexes are similarly plumaged, but males are slightly larger than females. Young birds have the white areas of plumage tinged with grey, a less distinct breast band, and pale fringes to the upperpart and wing covert feathers. The call of the grey-headed lapwing is a sharp chee-it.
This species nests from April to July in wet grassland, rice fields and marshland edges. It winters in similar habitat and... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 6 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 7 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 8 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Grey-headed Lapwing sighting in Kozhikode on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 200th most-seen of the 229 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Grey-headed Lapwing in Kozhikode on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grey-headed Lapwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
23rd of 29
Of the 29 cities where we can rate Grey-headed Lapwing sightings, Kozhikode ranks 23rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Nanchang (China, about 20%), Nagoya (Japan, about 10%) and Chattogram (Bangladesh, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grey-headed Lapwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Kozhikode (17 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.
