Vanellus tectus
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The black-headed lapwing or black-headed plover (Vanellus tectus) is a large lapwing, a group of largish waders in the family Charadriidae. It is a resident breeder across sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia, although it has seasonal movements. It lays two or three eggs on a ground scrape.
These are conspicuous and unmistakable birds. They are medium-large waders with a black head other than a white forehead, lower face and bands across the rear head and nape. There is a wispy black crest like northern lapwing and the bill and legs are red. The tail is white, tipped black.
In flight, the black-headed lapwing's upperwings have black flight feathers and brown coverts separated by a white bar. The underwings are white with black flight feathers. This species is a common breeder in wet lowland habitats close to water. It often feeds in drier habitats, such as golf courses and grassy scrub, picking insects and other invertebrates from the ground.
The black-headed lapwing has a metallic tink-tink call. The black-headed lapwing was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 6 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 7 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 8 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoo Pilsen | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 2 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Lapwing sighting in Meru National Park on a given day, based on 24 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 106th most-seen of the 243 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, June and September
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Lapwing in Meru National Park on a given day, against about 10% in February, April and November–December, the lowest months. Those are among Meru National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain a month against 200 mm in November. May and July–August have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-headed Lapwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Black-headed Lapwing sightings, Meru National Park ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Tsavo East National Park (Kenya, about 40%) and Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 20%).
Same genus: Vanellus
The closest relatives of the Black-headed Lapwing that you can see in Meru National Park (genus Vanellus, Lapwings) are Crowned Lapwing (about 40%) and Spur-winged Lapwing (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-headed Lapwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Meru National Park (24 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.
