Lapwing (species)

lapwing
	Lapwing ( Vanellus vanellus )
Systematics
Class :	Birds (aves)
Order :	Plover-like (Charadriiformes)
Family :	Plover (Charadriidae)
Genre :	Lapwing ( Vanellus )
Type :	lapwing
Scientific name
	Vanellus vanellus
	( Linnaeus , 1758)

The lapwing ( Vanellus vanellus ) is a species of bird from the family of Plover (Charadriidae). It typically breeds in the marsh meadows , on fore-dyke meadows and other pasture landscapes in the lowlands . The wading bird with its wide, paddle-shaped wings is known for its spectacular courtship flights , also known as gauze .

Lapwings occur in Eurasia , outside the mating season, i.e. from July to March, they can occur in larger swarms in the mudflats and on areas near the coast.

Lapwings are ground breeders ; their eggs were once considered a delicacy , but may no longer be collected because the lapwing in his inventory is threatened globally. In 2015 the species was placed on the International Red List of Endangered Birds.

description

Adult lapwing male with long Holle and black throat patch in breeding plumage .

Juvenile female lapwing with a short holle in a simple dress .

Male lapwing with incompletely colored throat patch in flight

The lapwing is about the size of a pigeon with a body length of 28 to 31 centimeters, the wingspan is then between 70 and 80 centimeters. Adult lapwing have a metallic green-gray shimmering coat with a blue-purple shoulder patch. The belly is colored white with a black, sharply demarcated chest band. The head is white with a black forehead that ends in a long two-lobed hood , which is called a hell . Starting from the black beak, a fuzzy black band runs under the eye to the back of the head. The abdomen is washed out in color from sand to rusty orange. In the breeding dress , the male differs from the female only in a longer den, a slightly more intense black color and the continuous throat patch. For a plover, lapwing has comparatively short legs that are dark red to brown in color.

In the plain dress , the chin and the front neck are white for both sexes. The feathers of the upper hand-coverts and shoulders are lined with pale yellow-brown, creating a scale-like pattern. The cave is significantly shorter than in the brood plumage. Juvenile lapwing look like adult ones in a plain dress, but also have wider, yellow-brown feather hems and a significantly lighter, brown-colored chest band.

The flight pattern of the lapwing is characteristic and unmistakable: lapwing flies with relaxed, leisurely wing beats, the wings themselves are noticeably wide and paddle-shaped. The black upper and black and white underside, which flashes in flight, allows you to identify flying lapwing from a great distance.

Lapwings are very vocal during the breeding season; their calls sound plaintively shrill, like "kschäää" or "kiju-wit", which has given them the German and also the Dutch name "Kievit". In courtship flight, a thumping noise can be generated with the wings.

distribution

Distribution of the lapwing:

Breeding areas

Year-round occurrence

migration

Wintering areas

Compiled by BirdLife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World (2016) 2006.

Breeding area

The lapwing is limited in its distribution to the Palearctic . It breeds in an area that stretches from Great Britain and Ireland in the west to eastern Siberia. The northern limit of distribution in Fennoscandinavia is about the 70th and in the European part of Russia the 65th northern latitude. In Europe, the southern limit of distribution is about 40th northern latitude, in Spain, however, it also occurs a little further south. Further to the east, its breeding area extends to Turkey, the northwest of Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China.

Migratory behavior

The lapwing is a migratory bird , and in some parts of its range it is also a line bird or even a stationary bird . The wintering area is bounded by the 3-degree isotherm to the north, with lapwing, depending on the current weather situation, also further north or south. The wintering areas include Great Britain and Ireland, the Netherlands, the Iberian Peninsula, the Mediterranean including North Africa, the Middle East, Southwest Asia, North India and Southeast China. Wintering lapwing can also be seen in Burma, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.

Lapwings are resident birds in the southwest of their breeding area. In the rest of the area they are migratory birds, whereby the climatic conditions have a strong influence on the migratory movements. The part of the European population that leaves its breeding area moves in a south and south-westerly direction. The migration begins in midsummer, but the main migration time falls in the autumn months. In Denmark, for example, the first wave of migrating lapwing was observed in June and July. These are northern and eastern European breeding birds. The largest number of migrating lapwing, namely around 100,000 to 200,000 lapwing, can be observed in August. These are lapwing that are still moulting. A third migratory wave of lapwing, moulting further east, appears in Denmark in October and November. In Israel, southern lapwing can be seen from late August to late December. The highlight of the train here is the period from late October to late November. The migration to the breeding area in Western Europe and the Middle East begins at the end of January with a migration peak in the period from the end of February to the beginning of March. Lapwings do not stay in their southernmost wintering quarters for more than two months.

Important resting places

In Western Europe there are a total of 46 areas in which more than 20,000 lapwing are counted during migration and are therefore of great importance as resting places. 22 of them are in Germany, 12 in France, eight in Great Britain and two each in the Netherlands and Ireland. Among the important German service areas include the fen landscape Drömling , the Elbe Valley in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the marshes of the Lower Elbe , the Fiener break , the Bay of Greifswald , the Hellwegbörden that Havelländische Luch , of Jadebusen , the Putzarer and Galenbecker See who Belziger Landscape meadows , the Rheiderland and, as the most important resting place, the entire Wadden Sea .

In the south-east of Europe, the most important resting place is the Karavasta lagoon , where more than 20,000 lapwing stay in winter.

habitat

Lapwings breed mainly in open, flat landscapes with short or no grass, on meadows and pastures , preferably at the edges of water , on wet meadows , heaths and moors . Lapwings also breed in fields and arable land. During the winter and the migration period, lapwing can also be found in harvested fields and on plowed fields. In winter you can see the birds spread out on old pastures, but also as troops on mud flats.

nutrition

Lapwings feed on insects and their larvae, worms and other invertebrates . Herbal substances only play a subordinate role. Occasionally, seeds are picked from the ground. Lapwings are diurnal and nocturnal, some birds even feed mainly at night.

Breeding biology

Lapwing nest

Lapwings are very faithful to their location, and they are monogamous , which means that the partners stay together for a lifetime. However, polygamy - a male has several females, in the lapwing usually two - also occurs. They usually breed in the second calendar year and usually return to their own place of birth to breed.

Arrival and oviposition

Lapwings can be found relatively early at the breeding site, in March, provided it is no longer freezing. Upon arrival, territories form , which the male defends with spectacular courtship flights . Here the male performs acrobatic flight maneuvers with side-tilting dive flights. It tosses itself to and fro in the air, shouting loudly, and trundles vertically to the ground, with its wings causing the loud thumping noises (see above).

Lapwings mostly breed semi-colonial, i. H. in smaller groups of two to 20 pairs, with maximum densities of nine pairs per hectare. Lapwings are often associated with other meadow birds such as black godwit and redshank . There are also isolated broods. The male sets more than one nest wells in kurzrasiger vegetation by pushing his upper body on the ground, and rotates in a circular motion, a trough in the ground. It is known that lapwing choose their nest location according to the color of the subsoil, with brown tones being preferred. The nest is a hollow on the ground and is often padded with stalks and other parts of plants . The female inspects these nest hollows and lays the four eggs she has chosen. These are usually in the cross shape characteristic of Limikolen in the nest - with the tips turned downwards towards the center of the nest.

Breeding season and rearing of chicks

Young lapwing

A clutch usually consists of four beige to brown spotted eggs , in very rare cases three or two eggs are laid. Four eggs are laid by a female lapwing in about five days. Both adult birds incubate the eggs for 21 to 28 days until the chicks hatch. During this time the nest vigorously by both adult birds against predators (is predators ) defended. Air enemies such as birds of prey are repelled by aggressive, fast and imposing air attacks, supported by loud calls. Birds from surrounding nests often help with this defense. If the nest is predicted and it is not late in the season, the female lays up to two replacement clutches.

Both parents take care of the chick rearing. The chicks flee the nest and leave the nest a few hours after hatching. Then they are led by their parents for up to five weeks before they fledge. Most families spend this time in the immediate vicinity of the nest, while others wander with their young animals up to three kilometers further into areas that offer the young animals more or better food. In the first ten days of their life, the chicks are not yet able to regulate their body temperature by themselves ( thermoregulation ). Therefore, the chicks still have to be warmed ( huddled ), which is usually taken over by the female. The mortality rate ( mortality ) of the chicks in the first ten days is therefore very high, especially in cold weather. At 35 days the chicks are fully feathered and able to fly.

Population development and endangerment

Flying lapwing troop

lapwing

The lapwing is basically a species whose population fluctuates greatly due to the weather. Cold winters and spring years with high levels of precipitation have a negative impact on stocks. Since the 19th century, habitat changes have also led to significant population changes. In large parts of Germany and Switzerland, for example, there has been a significant decline in the lapwing population since the 19th century. In southern Germany, parts of northern Germany and Switzerland, this population decline reached its first low point in the 1920s and 1930s. In other regions of Central Europe such as the Netherlands, northeast Germany and Poland, however, the decline lasted longer and lasted in northeast Central Europe into the 1960s.

In Switzerland and North Rhine-Westphalia, there were then again strong regional increases in the population, which lasted into the 1970s. In Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and other parts of Germany this could be observed regionally until the 1980s. Liechtenstein, Flanders and Saarland were repopulated by Kiebitzen between 1960 and 1971. The recovery of the population was due to the fact that lapwings were increasingly breeding on agricultural land and warmer springs led to lower clutch losses due to weather conditions. In the Netherlands, the "the lapwing richest country in the world" is considered, caused by large-scale embankments many new breeding habitats . Since the 1980s, a changed and more intensive management of the land and changes in water management have led to permanent habitat loss . Among other things, the conversion to winter cereals, increasing mechanization of agriculture, land consolidation and the increased use of environmental chemicals and thus a decrease in the number of insects available for food, a shifting of mowing, a decrease in extensive pasture management and a lack of spring floods play a role. Because of this progressive destruction of its habitats, the stocks in Germany, for example, have decreased significantly. In 1999 the population was only sixty percent of the population from 1975. Among other things, because of this sharp decline, the lapwing was bird of the year 1996. In Germany, the lapwing is one of the strictly protected species according to Section 7 (2) No. 13 BNatSchG and is also classified as a type of responsibility within the National Strategy for Biodiversity of the Federal Government. In the Red List of Germany's breeding birds from 2015, the species is listed in Category 2 as critically endangered. In Germany, the breeding population at the beginning of the 21st century was estimated at 67,000 to 104,000 and in the Netherlands at 200,000 to 300,000 breeding pairs. The breeding success of lapwing pairs in most Central European regions is considered to be too low to be maintained. Population increases and stability are often only a consequence of the influx of foreign individuals.

Despite this sharp decline in Europe the lapwing was long on the world's endangered Red List species the IUCN as not at risk (least concern) performed because, together with the Asian population, neither the total stock, nor the distribution area, yet the rate of inventory decline an immediate global Endangerment of the species revealed. In total, there were still 5.2 to 10 million lapwing in the relatively large distribution area. In 2015, however, the global population had declined to such an extent that it was classified as near threatened, along with the common woodcock and other species , and added to the Red List.

Life expectancy

The oldest lapwing was 18 years old after ring finds. The annual mortality rate is around 25 to 30% for adults and around 35 to 40% for one year olds.

Lapwing and human

In ancient Egypt , the lapwing was used as a synonym both for the name of the Rechit people and for designation as a "submissive class". In the 18th century, lapwing eggs were a delicacy on stately tables, for example, Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony requested the delivery of good, fresh lapwing eggs in March 1736. Even Chancellor Otto von Bismarck got every year on his birthday on April 1 each 101 lapwing eggs from a Stammtischrunde out of town Jever . In 1883, Bismarck thanked the faithful von Jever with an egg-shaped goblet, the lid of which is adorned with a lapwing's head.

In Germany, the lapwing egg hunt has not been practiced for a long time. Collecting lapwing eggs is prohibited throughout the European Union . In the Netherlands, lapwing eggs were allowed to be searched for and eaten in the province of Friesland until 2006. It is still a popular sport there to find the first lapwing egg of the year and give it to the king. Hundreds of people go to the meadows and pastures every year. Whoever finds the first egg is celebrated like a folk hero. Today only for searching, in the past also for collecting lapwing eggs, you need a license there, with which you also commit yourself to the protection of meadow birds. All egg hunters go into the meadows to mark nests so farmers can drive around them, or put guards over the nests so they cannot be trampled by grazing cattle. Similar programs are also carried out in north-west Germany ( Cloppenburg , Ostfriesland , Dümmer , Bremen ) in order to at least exclude agriculture as a cause of loss for the clutches.

The characteristic call of the lapwing was interpreted in Silesia as "Come with me!", So that it was called the bird of the dead.

In Alemmanic Switzerland , according to popular belief, old maids and, more rarely, single men were turned into lapwings; see the article Giritzenmoos .

supporting documents

literature

Hans-Günther Bauer, Einhard Bezzel , Wolfgang Fiedler (eds.): The compendium of birds in Central Europe: Everything about biology, endangerment and protection. Volume 1: Nonpasseriformes - non-sparrow birds. Aula-Verlag Wiebelsheim, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89104-647-2 .
AJ Beintema, O. Moedt, D. Ellinger: Ecological Atlas van de Nederlandse weidevogels . Schuyt & Co, Haarlem 1995, ISBN 90-6097-391-7 .
Simon Delany, Derek Scott, Tim Dodman, David Stroud (Eds.): An Atlas of Wader Populations in Africa and Western Eurasia. Wetlands International , Wageningen 2009, ISBN 978-90-5882-047-1 .
Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliott, Jordi Sargatal (eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 1996, ISBN 84-87334-20-2 .
Gerhard Kooiker, Claudia Verena Buckow: The lapwing - flight artist in the open country (collection ornithology). Wiesbaden 1997.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b NABU press release | No 143/16 | December 8, 2016 NABU: Newly discovered and already endangered - Global Red List of Endangered Bird Species

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Delany et al., P. 128

↑ Delany et al., P. 129

↑ Delany et al., P: 131

↑ Delany et al., P. 132

↑ Delany et al., P. 131

↑ ^a ^b ^c Bauer et al., P. 434.

↑ Quoted from: Kooiker, Buckow: Der Kiebitz. Wiesbaden 1997, p. 28.

↑ Bauer et al., P. 435.

↑ Species under special responsibility in Germany ( Memento of the original dated August 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the homepage of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, accessed on June 3, 2016. @1@ 2

↑ Christoph Grüneberg, Hans-Günther Bauer, Heiko Haupt, Ommo Hüppop, Torsten Ryslavy, Peter Südbeck: Red List of Germany's Breeding Birds , 5 version . In: German Council for Bird Protection (Hrsg.): Reports on bird protection . tape 52 , November 30, 2015.

↑ Vanellus vanellus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Accessed November 13, 2011th

↑ Meadow bird protection. (No longer available online.) BUND Bremen, archived from the original on July 5, 2016 ; Retrieved July 5, 2016 .

↑ Peter Bertau: The meaning of historical bird names - non-singing birds Volume 1. Springer, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-642-41733-7 , p. 407. Excerpts from books.google.de