Masked Lapwing: how to recognise it
A bird of Asia and Oceania. Learn the marks that make it easy to identify, then practise with real photographs in Lore.
Practise with real photosAll species guides
Photo © Caiden · CC BY-NC · iNaturalist · all photo credits
- Scientific name
- Vanellus miles
- Family
- Plovers and Lapwings
- Size
- About 14 cm
- Habitat
- Gardens and woodland
- Found in
- Asia and Oceania
The key marks
Yellow belly with a black central stripe and a greenish back. Coal Tit is smaller and buff below, with a white nape patch.
Voice
A ringing "tea-cher, tea-cher", plus many other calls.
Good to know
It has a huge range of calls, so a strange call in the garden is very often a Great Tit.
Do not confuse with
Compare it with the Coal Tit. Look at the marks above one by one rather than the overall colour, and practise telling the two apart with real photos.
Where and when
You can expect to find it in gardens and woodland. It is especially common in Australia. Distribution changes with the seasons and from year to year, so check a recent local observation source before you go looking.