Vanellus melanopterus
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
It is a habitat specialist of short grass in well-watered temperate grasslands. They may move about locally to find ideal situations, often at night. In their tightly grouped flying flocks they resemble plovers. A black breast band separates the lapwing's grey head and neck from the white underside. The wing coverts are brown. It has a variable but prominent white forehead patch similar to its near relative, the Senegal lapwing, but in contrast shows a prominent white wingbar in flight, bordered by black remiges. The two species are also separated by their respective habitat preferences, the Senegal lapwing preferring lower, mostly drier locations.
The black-winged lapwing behaves somewhat like the similar-sized but more generally occurring crowned lapwing and the two species sometimes occur in mixed flocks. The leg colour brightens... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 3 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 11 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-winged Lapwing sighting in Serengeti National Park on a given day, based on 262 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 176th most-seen of the 469 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–April and July–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-winged Lapwing in Serengeti National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January and May–June, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-winged 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.
4th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Black-winged Lapwing sightings, Serengeti National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Masai Mara National Reserve (Kenya, about 20%), Bale Mountains National Park (Ethiopia, about 10%) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania, about 10%).
Same genus: Vanellus
The closest relatives of the Black-winged Lapwing that you can see in Serengeti National Park (genus Vanellus, Lapwings) are Crowned Lapwing (about 50%), Blacksmith Lapwing (about 50%) and Spur-winged Lapwing (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-winged Lapwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Serengeti National Park (262 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.
