Lapwing Call MP3s
The Lapwing's tumbling, wheezy call recorded for wader shooters and farmland birders tracking this increasingly scarce species.
Also known as
Recordings (5)
About this species
The Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) is a migratory wader (shorebird) of around 30 cm — glossed green-and-purple above, crowned by a thin wispy black crest. It feeds on open farmland, stubble and damp grassland, roosting on marshes and estuaries.
Its wheezy, far-carrying 'pee-wit' call gives the bird one of its folk names. It gleans insects, worms and small seeds from short turf and bare ground. In spring the male throws itself into a tumbling, switchback display flight over its territory. On passage it threads through the wetlands of Greece and the Mediterranean each spring and autumn, a classic bird of the open marsh.
Legal use
The Northern Lapwing is classed as vulnerable in Europe with an ongoing long-term population decline, and is fully protected in the UK and many EU countries — yet it remains legal quarry under national hunting allowances in France, Italy, Spain, and Greece, with France alone accounting for the large majority of the tens of thousands of lapwings shot across the EU each year under a capped national quota. This inconsistency means the same bird is protected in one country and legally shot in a neighboring one during the same migration. Verify your country's specific rules and any seasonal caps before hunting; see our full country-by-country disclaimer.