Vanellus cinereus
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grey-headed Lapwing sighting in Keoladeo National Park on a given day, based on 153 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 160th most-seen of the 278 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grey-headed Lapwing in Keoladeo National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to November, the lowest months. Those are among Keoladeo National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain a month against 240 mm in July.
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.
3rd of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Grey-headed Lapwing sightings, Keoladeo National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Kaziranga National Park (India, about 40%) and Manas National Park (India, about 10%).
Same genus: Vanellus
The closest relatives of the Grey-headed Lapwing that you can see in Keoladeo National Park (genus Vanellus, Lapwings) are Red-wattled Lapwing (about 80%), White-tailed Lapwing (about 30%) and Yellow-wattled Lapwing (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grey-headed Lapwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Keoladeo National Park (153 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
