Audubon

Guide to North American Birds

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Photo: David Tipling/Vireo

Northern Lapwing

Vanellus vanellus

Lapwings are large plovers, often with crests, and various kinds are found in most parts of the world except North America. They are often more at home in open fields than on shorelines. This species is common in Europe and Asia; it rarely wanders to eastern Canada or the northeastern United States. Such strays usually occur singly, but on a few occasions, major winter storms have brought small invasions.
Family Plovers
Lapwings are large plovers, often with crests, and various kinds are found in most parts of the world except North America. They are often more at home in open fields than on shorelines. This species is common in Europe and Asia; it rarely wanders to eastern Canada or the northeastern United States. Such strays usually occur singly, but on a few occasions, major winter storms have brought small invasions.
Photo Gallery



Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

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Songs and Calls
Flight note a thin, whistled pee-wit.
Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Northern Lapwing

Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.

Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.

Climate threats facing the Northern Lapwing

Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.

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