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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.
These were rather vague terms which were not applied with any great consistency in the past. In general, larger species have often been called lapwings, smaller species plovers or dotterels and there are in fact two clear taxonomic sub-groups: most lapwings belong to the subfamily Vanellinae, most plovers and dotterels to Charadriinae.
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.
Although the most familiar Eurasian lapwing, Vanellus vanellus (northern lapwing), has a wispy crest, only two other species do so. Red or yellow facial wattles are a more typical decoration. Only northern, sociable, white-tailed, grey-headed and brown-chested lapwings are truly migratory species. The Andean lapwing moves downhill in winter.
There are 25 extant species of lapwings. [5] Africa has the most species of lapwings, while North America has none. [5] Australia has two native species, the masked lapwing and the banded lapwing. [6] The masked lapwing is split into Vanellus miles miles and Vanellus miles novaehollandiae. [7]
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]
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The species is now placed with the other lapwings in the genus Vanellus that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. [5] [6] The scientific name Vanellus is Medieval Latin for the northern lapwing and derives from vannus, a winnowing fan. [7] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. [6]