Southern Lapwing

About the Southern Lapwing

The Southern Lapwing is the loud, bold plover of South American pastures. It is gray-brown above with a black face and breast, a thin wispy crest, red eyes, and a bronze-green shoulder that flashes in good light. In flight the broad wings show bold black-and-white patterns, and every movement comes with a ringing, scolding call.

It is famous for defending its nest. Pairs dive-bomb people, dogs, and cattle that wander too close, and each wing carries a sharp red spur at the bend that it can use in a fight. Nests are simple scrapes in short grass, so the birds rely on noise and nerve rather than hiding.

This is a bird of open country across most of South America, and it has been expanding north through Central America as forest gives way to pasture. It is the national bird of Uruguay, where it is known as the tero, and it thrives on ranches, soccer fields, and airport grass where other shorebirds would never stop.

These photos come from Llano Grande Golf Course near Weslaco in the Rio Grande Valley in April 2024, where this bird became the first Southern Lapwing ever recorded in Texas -- a first state record, far north of its normal range. Like its relatives back home, it was right at home on the short, watered grass of the fairways.