The
Lapwing is about 34cm long and its primary characteristic is
its prominent crest, which looks like a pigtail and has earned
the bird the Chinese nickname of "pigtail plover."
They walk and fly with great poise despite their rather stocky
body build. In the summer, their beaks are black; their faces,
throats, and bellies are white; their backs are olive green;
and they have a wide, black stripe on their upper chest. In
the winter, their faces turn slightly yellowish-brown, and their
throats and foreheads are grayish-white.
Behavior:
Lapwings
are winter visitors to Taiwan and have a "miao, miao"
call that sounds similar to a cat's meow. They usually arrive
in Taiwan around November and stay in small groups on fallow
farmlands near the coastline until the following February. They
can also be found near wet rice paddies, swamplands, grassy
plains, and sugarcane fields. Lapwings tend to move in crowds
and forage for their food on farmlands or in barren fields,
feeding primarily on insects, earthworms, tender shoots, stalks,
roots, and seeds. When foraging for meat, they will scratch
and stomp on the ground with their feet to stir up insects and
mollusks underground, then immediately peck at their prey whenever
a bug or earthworm begins to move. Lapwings are rather shy birds
and are hard to approach. Lapwing parents have a special way
of dealing with enemies during the breeding season: they will
deceive them by fluttering their wings and pretending to be
hurt in order to distract them, and then lure them away from
their nests.
Habitat:
Lapwings
are winter visitors to Taiwan. They live primarily on open swamplands,
near river outlets, and in wetlands.
