THE whitecrowned lapwing is a red data book of endangered species (RDB) species of bird which is found on mud and sandbanks of large South and East African perennial rivers.
Usually singly or in pairs, they are found with non-breeding birds, forming small groups.
These lapwings are shy and wary, readily flying up when alarmed. They have a noisy, high-pitched ‘kyip, kyip, kyip’ call.
Their flight is slow and buoyant and they forage mainly on the shoreline near water where they enjoy feeding on insects, fish and frogs.
The breeding season is July to January. The nest is a scrape in gravel or sand of open shoreline or sandbanks into which about four creamy buff eggs are laid. They are boldly spotted with brown and pale grey marks.
The incubation and fledging period is unrecorded. Incubating birds soak their belly feathers before returning to the nest in hot weather.
There is no tribal name for this bird but in Afrikaans, it is called die witkopkiewiet.
