Details
Vanellus vanellus
A crested plover with green-glossed upperparts, famous for tumbling display flights over breeding fields.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
Uses damp pasture, farmland, reclaimed land, marshes, estuaries, and tidal flats, favoring open short vegetation.
The body is black and white with greenish upperparts, rounded wings, and a long crest. Breeding males have darker head and breast markings.
It feeds on the ground and performs rolling aerial displays at nesting sites. Winter flocks gather in fields and tidal wetlands.
Earthworms, insects, larvae, spiders, crustaceans, and mollusks are eaten.
Shallow nests are made in short grass or bare ground. Adults guard chicks and loudly mob predators.
Agricultural change and wetland loss have driven declines in parts of Europe, supporting its near-threatened status.
