Lapwings

The family Charadriidae is very large with seventy species listed and is split into subfamilies.

The Lapwings belong to the subfamily Vanellinae which contains twenty-four species of the genus Vanellus. There is one further species in this subfamily, the Red-kneed Dotterel, which has a genus of its own, Erythrogonys.

Family: CHARADRIIDAE (Leach 1820)

Subfamily: VANELLINAE (Bonaparte 1842)

Genera: There are twenty-four species of Lapwing within the Vanellus genus and one further species, the Red-kneed Dotterel, which has a genus of its own Erythrogonys.

Vanellus – Medieval Latin; vanellus lapwing, diminutive of vannus winnowing fan (Brisson 1760).
Erythrogonys – Greek; eruthros red; gonu knee (Gould 1838).

Distribution

• Europe: Northern Lapwing.
• Africa: Northern Lapwing, Long-toed Lapwing, Blacksmith Lapwing, Spur-winged Lapwing, Black-headed Lapwing, White-headed Lapwing, Senegal Lapwing, Black-winged Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, African Wattled Lapwing, Spot-breasted Lapwing, Brown-chested Lapwing, Sociable Lapwing, White-tailed Lapwing.
• Asia: Northern Lapwing, River Lapwing, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Grey-headed Lapwing, Red-wattled Lapwing, Sociable Lapwing, White-tailed Lapwing.
• Australasia: Javan Lapwing, Banded lapwing, Masked Lapwing, Black-shouldered Lapwing, Red-kneed Dotterel.
• Central and South America: Southern Lapwing, Andean Lapwing.

Current Taxonomy:

• Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus (Linnaeus 1758)
• Long-toed Lapwing V. crassirostris (Hartlaub 1855)
  • ∗ V. c. crassirostris (Hartlaub 1855)
  • ∗ V. c. leucopterus (Reichenow 1889)
• Blacksmith Lapwing V. armatus (Burchell 1822)
• Spur-winged Lapwing V. spinosus (Linnaeus 1758)
• River Lapwing V. duvacelii (Lesson 1826)
• Black-headed Lapwing V. tectus (Boddaert 1783)
  • ∗ V. t. tectus (Boddaert 1783)
  • ∗ V. t. latifrons (Reichenow 1881)
• Yellow-wattled Lapwing V. malabaricus (Boddaert 1783)
• White-crowned Lapwing V. albiceps (Gould 1834)
• Senegal Lapwing V. lugubris (Lesson 1826)
• Black-winged Lapwing V. melanopterus (Cretzschmar 1829)
  • ∗ V. m. melanopterus (Cretzschmar 1829)
  • ∗ V. m. minor (Zedlitz 1908)
• Crowned Lapwing V. coronatus (Boddaert 1783)
  • ∗ V. c. coronatus (Boddaert 1783)
  • ∗ V. c. xerophilus (Clancey 1960)
  • ∗ V. c. demissus (Friedmann 1928)
• African Wattled Lapwing V. senegallus (Linnaeus 1766)
  • ∗ V. s. senegallus (Linnaeus 1766)
  • ∗ V. s. lateralis (Smith 1939)
  • ∗ V. s. major (Neumann 1929)
• Spot-breasted Lapwing V. melanocephalus (Rüppell 1845)
• Brown-chested Lapwing V. superciliosus (Reichenow 1886)
• Grey-headed Lapwing V. cinereus (Blyth 1842)
• Red-wattled Lapwing V. indicus (Boddaert 1783)
  • ∗ V. i. indicus (Boddaert 1783)
  • ∗ V. i. aigneri (Laubmann 1813)
  • ∗ V. i. lankaei (Koelz 1939)
  • ∗ V. i. atronuchalis (Jerdon 1864)
• Javan Lapwing V. macropterus (Wagler 1827)
• Banded Lapwing V. tricolor (Vieillot 1818)
• Masked Lapwing V. miles (Boddaert 1783)
• Black-shouldered Lapwing V. novaehollandiae (Stephens 1819)
• Sociable Lapwing V. gregarius (Pallas 1771)
• White-tailed Lapwing V. leucurus (Lichtenstein 1823)
• Southern Lapwing V. chilensis (Molina 1782)
  • ∗ V. c. chilensis (Molina 1782)
  • ∗ V. c. cayennensis (Gmelin 1789)
  • ∗ V. c. lampronotus (Wagler 1827)
  • ∗ V. c. fretensis (Brodkorb 934)
• Andean Lapwing V. resplendens (Tschudi 1843)
• Red-kneed Dotterel Erythrogonys cinctus (Gould 1838)

Past Taxonomy:

Originally Parra, Tringa, Chettusia, Charadrius, Lobivanellus and Pluvianus were given as generic names for the lapwings variously when first described, along with other proposed genera later such as, Ptiloscelys (Andean) Belonopterus (Southern) Vanellochettusia (White-tailed) Hoplopterus (Masked, Red-wattled, Grey-headed, Spot-breasted, Crowned, Black-winged, Senegal, White-headed, Black-headed, River, Spur-winged, Blacksmith) Lobibyx (Masked), Zonifer (Banded), Rogibyx (Javan), Microsarcops (Grey-headed), Anomalophrys (Brown-chested), Tylibys (Spot-breasted), Afribyx (African Wattled), Stephanibyx (Crowned, Black-winged, Senegal), Xiphidiopterus (White-headed), Lobipluvia (Yellow-wattled), Sarciophorus (Black-headed), Anitibyx (Blacksmith) and Hemiparra (Long-toed).

Fossil Species

Extant genera:

• Vanellus (Middle/Late Pleistocene – Recent) – includes Belanopteryx.
• Vanellus species from Belgian deposits middle Oligocene.
• Vanellus chilensis prosphatus (‘Dorypaltus prosphatus’ Brodkorb 1959). Late Pleistocene lapwing bones from Florida regarded as indistinguishable from those of the Southern Lapwing except by being smaller. May not be specifically distinct but the lack of Southern Lapwing’s’ occurrence out of South America on a regular basis suggests that they may be better considered a separate paleosubspecies.
• Vanellus downsi (‘Belonopterus downsi’ Campbell 2002) Extinct prehistoric species closely related to the Southern Lapwing found in California.
• Oreopholus orcesi (Campbell 1976).

Extinct genus

• Viator picis (Campbell, 1979) (Late Pleistocene of Talara, Peru) – may be synonym of Vanellus. Extinct genus and species from the Late Pleistocene asphalt deposits found near Talara, northwestern Peru.

Bibliography

• BirdLife International: IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/03/2020
• Campbell, Kenneth Eugene Jr. (1979). The Non-passerine Pleistocene Avifauna of the Talara Tar Seeps, Northwestern Peru – Life Sciences Contributions. 118. Royal Ontario Museum. pp. 1–203. ISBN 978-0-88854-230-4
• Campbell, Kenneth Eugene Jr. (2002). A New Species of Late Pleistocene Lapwing from Rancho La Brea, California – The Condor, Volume 104, Issue 1, 1 February 2002, Pages 170–174, https://doi.org/10.1093/condor/104.1.170
• del Hoyo, Josep, Andrew Elliot & Jordi Sargatal: Handbook of the Birds of the World – Vol. 3 (1996)
• Hayman, Peter, John Marchant & Tony Prater: Shorebirds – An identification guide to the waders of the world (1986)
• Jobling, James A.: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (2010)
• Seebohm, Henry: The Geographical Distribution of the Family Charadriidae, or, The Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and Their Allies (1888)
• Wikipedia: List of fossil bird genera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fossil_bird_genera#Charadriiformes

Click on an image for more information about the individual species.

Genus Vanellus

Genus Erythrogonys