CreatureData

White-tailed lapwing

Vanellus leucurus (M. H. K. Lichtenstein, 1823)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The white-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus) is a species in the family Charadriidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 119 g to 139 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

White-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus)
Photo: Elşad İbrahimov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the white-tailed lapwing

Weight
119 g – 139 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
55 cm – 70 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
wetlandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
23 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
Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the white-tailed lapwing?

WHITE-TAILED LAPWING · WINGSPAN 70 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 70 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the white-tailed lapwing is about 41% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the white-tailed lapwing live?

Not recorded

What is the white-tailed lapwing?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The white-tailed lapwing or white-tailed plover (Vanellus leucurus) is a wader in the lapwing genus. The genus name Vanellus is Medieval Latin for a lapwing and derives from vannus, which refers to a winnowing fan. The specific leucurus is from Ancient Greek leukouros, "white-tailed".

This medium-sized lapwing is long-legged and fairly long-billed. It is the only lapwing likely to be seen in other than very shallow water, where it picks insects and other small prey mainly from the surface.

Adults are slim erect birds with a brown back and foreneck, paler face and grey breast. Its long yellow legs, pure white tail and distinctive brown, white and black wings make this species unmistakable. Young birds have a scaly back, and may show some brown in the tail.

The breeding season call is a peewit, similar to northern lapwing.

It breeds semi-colonially on inland marshes in Iraq, Kuwait, Iran and southern Russia. Four eggs are laid in a ground nest. The Iraqi and Iranian breeders are mainly residents, but Russian birds migrate south in winter to the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and north east Africa. It is a very rare vagrant in western Europe, the first example in Britain being found at Packington, Warwickshire on 12 July 1975.

In some parts of its distribution range the species faces threats related to habitat destruction and unintentional poaching.

The white-tailed lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

From the Wikipedia article “White-tailed lapwing” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=White-tailed_lapwing&oldid=1371517152), 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 white-tailed lapwing endangered?

The white-tailed 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 white-tailed lapwing classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderCharadriiformes
  5. familyCharadriidae
  6. genusVanellus
  7. SpeciesVanellus leucurus (M. H. K. Lichtenstein, 1823)

Synonyms Charadrius leucurus, Charadrius leucurus, Chettusia leucura leucura, Chettusia leucurus, Vanellochettusia leucura, Vanellus leucurus

Other names and names in other languages (10)
  • White tailed lapwingEnglish
  • White-tailed ploverEnglish
  • SumpvibeDanish
  • WeißschwanzkiebitzGerman
  • Avefría coliblancaSpanish
  • SuohyyppäFinnish
  • Vanneau à queue blancheFrench
  • witstaartkievitDutch
  • abibe-de-cauda-brancaPortuguese
  • sumpvipaSwedish

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the white-tailed lapwing

Other species in the same genus Vanellus.

CompareWhite-tailed lapwing vs Northern lapwingWhite-tailed lapwing vs Red-wattled lapwingWhite-tailed lapwing vs Sociable lapwingWhite-tailed lapwing vs Grey-headed lapwing

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the white-tailed lapwing?

An adult white-tailed lapwing weighs 119 g – 139 g and has a wingspan of 55 cm – 70 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the white-tailed lapwing endangered?

The white-tailed 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 white-tailed lapwing?

The white-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus) 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). White-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-tailed-lapwing

MLA

“White-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-tailed-lapwing.

BibTeX
@misc{white_tailed_lapwing_2026,
  title = {White-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-tailed-lapwing},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}