River Lapwing

The river lapwing is 29–32 cm long, with a black crest, crown, face and central throat and greyish-white sides to the neck and nape. It has a grey-brown breast band and white underparts with a black belly patch, a brown back, a white rump and a black tail, and it resembles the closely related spur-winged lapwing of Africa. Young birds have brown tips to the black head feathers, a sandier back and pale fringes to the upperparts. The call is a sharp tip-tip or did-did-did (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds from the Indian subcontinent eastwards to Southeast Asia, with a range that includes much of northern and north-eastern India and extends to Vietnam, and appears to be entirely sedentary. It lays two eggs on a ground scrape. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident and local migrant of wetland that eats invertebrates, with a Large range and a stable current trend (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).