deepankar_das
Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus)
Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, Karnataka, India
The Red-wattled Lapwing usually keeps in pairs or trios in well-watered open country, ploughed fields, grazing land, and margins and dry beds of tanks and puddles. They occasionally form large flocks, ranging from 26 to 200 birds. It is also found in forest clearings around rain-filled depressions.
It runs about in short spurts and dips forward obliquely (with unflexed legs) to pick up food in a typical plover manner. Is uncannily and ceaselessly vigilant, day or night, and is the first to detect intrusions and raise an alarm. Flight rather slow, with deliberate flaps, but capable of remarkable agility when defending nest or being hunted by a hawk.
Like other lapwings, they soak their belly feathers to provide water to their chicks as well as to cool the eggs during hot weather.
The chick leaves the nest and follows the parents soon after hatching. They bathe in pools of water when available and will often spend time on preening. They sometimes rest on the ground with the tarsi laid flat on the ground and at other times may rest on one leg.
Healthy adult birds have few predators
Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus)
Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, Karnataka, India
The Red-wattled Lapwing usually keeps in pairs or trios in well-watered open country, ploughed fields, grazing land, and margins and dry beds of tanks and puddles. They occasionally form large flocks, ranging from 26 to 200 birds. It is also found in forest clearings around rain-filled depressions.
It runs about in short spurts and dips forward obliquely (with unflexed legs) to pick up food in a typical plover manner. Is uncannily and ceaselessly vigilant, day or night, and is the first to detect intrusions and raise an alarm. Flight rather slow, with deliberate flaps, but capable of remarkable agility when defending nest or being hunted by a hawk.
Like other lapwings, they soak their belly feathers to provide water to their chicks as well as to cool the eggs during hot weather.
The chick leaves the nest and follows the parents soon after hatching. They bathe in pools of water when available and will often spend time on preening. They sometimes rest on the ground with the tarsi laid flat on the ground and at other times may rest on one leg.
Healthy adult birds have few predators