Critically Endangered
Sociable Lapwing
Vanellus gregarius
The sociable lapwing, referred to as the sociable plover in the UK, is a wader in the plover family.
Appearance
This medium-sized lapwing has longish black legs and a short black bill. Non breeding individuals in winter have light brown wings with a striking head pattern. The sociable lapwing has a black crown and eyestripe, the latter being bordered above and below with white.
It is between27–30 cm (11–12 in) in length.
Published measurements include mass about 252.
Range and habitat
Once occupying a large range in Europe, the sociable lapwing has been practically wiped out from the continent. On their way, individuals have been observed in nearly every European country and the French Empire, often found alongside the Northern lapwing on its migratory and vagrancy trips.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
It is a fully migratory bird, breeding in Kazakhstan and wintering in the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and Sudan with a very small wintering population in Iberia.
In crisis
Sociable Lapwing is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Sociable Lapwing, Wikidata item Q279307. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
