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The masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia (particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent), New Zealand and New Guinea. It spends most of its time on the ground searching for food such as insects and worms, and has several distinctive calls.
The traditional terms "plover", "lapwing", and "dotterel" do not correspond exactly to current taxonomic models; thus, several of the Vanellinae are often called plovers, and one a dotterel, while a few of the "true" plovers (subfamily Charadriinae) are known colloquially as lapwings. In general, a lapwing can be thought of as a larger plover.
Lapwing Incubating Its Eggs—A photograph for which in 1895 R. B. Lodge received from the Royal Photographic Society the first medal ever presented for nature photography. Eric Hosking and Harold Lowes stated their — incorrect — belief that this was the first photograph of a wild bird. [17]
In species where both parents incubate the eggs, females and males vary in the way they share their incubation duties, both within and between species. In some pairs, parents exchange on the nest in the morning and in the evening so that their incubation rhythm follows 24-hour day, in others females and males exchange up to 20 times a day.
Plover eggs were a form of eggs as food, and a seasonal delicacy of western Europe. [1] Gathered from wild green-plover nests, [2] a practice called plover egging, these eggs were perceived to be particularly flavorful and were snatched up by avid rural foragers and, in turn, their urban customers, as soon as nesting season began each year.
Eggs are usually in a clutch size of three to four eggs, light brown with brown and blackish-brown splotches all over the shell. [13] Eggs are approximately 42 mm x 32 mm and pear shaped. [ 10 ] During breeding season they are aggressive defending their territory and attacking any predator that comes close to the nests. [ 16 ]
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These lapwings breed in the dry season with peak breeding in March to May ahead of the monsoons. [15] The nest territory has been estimated, based on the distance to nearest neighbours, to be about 2.7 acres. [16] They lay four eggs in a ground scrape. [17] A nest in a clump of grass has been noted as exceptional. [18]