CreatureData

Masked lapwing

Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) is a species in the family Charadriidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 248.4 g to 387 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Masked lapwing (Vanellus miles)
Photo: Guillaume Blanchard · CC BY-SA 1.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the masked lapwing

Weight
248.4 g – 387 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
75 cm – 85 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
grasslandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
30 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
4src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
17.9 monthssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
1src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the masked lapwing?

MASKED LAPWING · WINGSPAN 85 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 85 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the masked lapwing is about 50% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the masked lapwing live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The masked lapwing is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the masked lapwing?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia (particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent), New Zealand and New Guinea. It spends most of its time on the ground searching for food such as insects and worms and has several distinctive calls. It is common in Australian fields, open land and where there is lots of water, and is known for its defensive swooping behaviour during the nesting season.

Despite the species being also known as the masked plover and often called the spur-winged plover or just plover in its native range, lapwings are classified to their own subfamily, Vanellinae, and not to the closely related plover subfamily, Charadriinae. There are two subspecies, the nominate subspecies and the southern V. m. novaehollandiae. The latter has distinctive black markings on the shoulder and side of the chest, and is sometimes recognised as a separate species, the black-shouldered lapwing (Vanellus novaehollandiae).

From the Wikipedia article “Masked lapwing” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Masked_lapwing&oldid=1376129658), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the masked lapwing endangered?

The masked lapwing is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the masked lapwing classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderCharadriiformes
  5. familyCharadriidae
  6. genusVanellus
  7. SpeciesVanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783)

Synonyms Hoplopterus miles, Lobibyx miles

Other names and names in other languages (42)
  • Australasian spur-winged ploverEnglish
  • Masked ploverEnglish
  • Spur-winged ploverEnglish
  • أبو طيط مقنعArabic
  • fredeluga emmascarada septentrionalCatalan
  • čejka australskáCzech
  • cornchwiglen fygydogWelsh
  • Hvidhalset MaskevibeDanish
  • MaskenkiebitzGerman
  • MaskovaneloEsperanto
  • maska vaneloEsperanto
  • Avefría militarSpanish
  • Avefría militar norteñaSpanish
  • lokutkiivitajaEstonian
  • خروسکلی نقابدارPersian
  • naamiohyyppäFinnish
  • Vanneau soldatFrench
  • žutokljuni vivakCroatian
  • álarcos bíbicHungarian
  • Զինվորական կիվիվArmenian
  • Trulek topengIndonesian
  • Pavoncella mascherataItalian
  • ズグロトサカゲリJapanese
  • kaukėtoji pempėLithuanian
  • Tábąąsdísí biniiʼ łitsooígííNavajo
  • MaskerkievitDutch
  • Noordelijke maskerkievitDutch
  • maskevipeNorwegian
  • czajka płatkolicaPolish
  • abibe-mascaradoPortuguese
  • abibe-de-máscaraPortuguese
  • Солдатский чибисRussian
  • cíbik maskovýSlovak
  • krpasta pribaSlovenian
  • Australijski resasti vivakSerbian
  • maskvipaSwedish
  • Miğferli KızkuşuTurkish
  • чайка білошияUkrainian
  • bunyarinarinxdk
  • 白頸麥雞Chinese
  • 白颈麦鸡Chinese
  • 黃臉肉垂麥雞Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the masked lapwing

Other species in the same genus Vanellus.

CompareMasked lapwing vs Northern lapwingMasked lapwing vs Red-wattled lapwingMasked lapwing vs Sociable lapwingMasked lapwing vs White-tailed lapwing

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the masked lapwing?

An adult masked lapwing weighs 248.4 g – 387 g and has a wingspan of 75 cm – 85 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the masked lapwing live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the masked lapwing for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the masked lapwing endangered?

The masked lapwing is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the masked lapwing?

The masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) belongs to the family Charadriidae in the order Charadriiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Masked lapwing (Vanellus miles). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/masked-lapwing

MLA

“Masked lapwing (Vanellus miles).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/masked-lapwing.

BibTeX
@misc{masked_lapwing_2026,
  title = {Masked lapwing (Vanellus miles)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/masked-lapwing},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}