Red Wattl

Appearance

Red-wattled lapwings are large waders, about 35 cm long. The wings and back are light brown with a purple to green sheen, but the head, a bib on the front and back of the neck are black. Prominently white patch runs between these two colours, from belly and tail, flanking the neck to the sides of crown. Short tail is tipped black. A red fleshy wattle in front of each eye, black-tipped red bill, and the long legs are yellow. In flight, prominent white wing bars formed by the white on the secondary coverts.

Males and females are similar in plumage but males have a 5% longer wing and tend to have a longer carpal spur. The length of the birds is 320–350 mm, wing of 208–247 mm with the nominate averaging 223 mm, Sri Lanka 217 mm. The Bill is 31–36 mm and tarsus of 70–83 mm. Tail length is 104–128 mm.

Its striking appearance is supplemented by its noisy nature, with a loud and scolding "did-he-do-it" call, uttered both in the day and night.

Leucistic abnormal plumages have been noted.

Naming

The local names are mainly onomatopoeic in origin and include "titeeri", "titawi", "tittibha", "tateehar", "titodi", "hatatut", "balighora", "yennappa chitawa", "aal-kaati".

Distribution

It breeds from West Asia eastwards across South Asia, with another sub-species further east in Southeast Asia. May migrate altitudinally in spring and autumn, and spreads out widely in the monsoons on creation of requisite habitats, but by and large the populations are resident.

This species is declining in its western range, but is abundant in much of South Asia, being seen at almost any wetland habitat in its range.

Reproduction

The breeding season is mainly March to August. The courtship involves the male puffing its feathers and pointing its beak upwards. The male then shuffles around the female. Several males may display to females and they may be close together. The eggs are laid in a ground scrape or depression sometimes fringed with pebbles, goat or hare droppings. About 3–4 black-blotched buff eggs shaped a bit like a peg-top, 42x30 mm on average. Nests are difficult to find since the eggs are cryptically coloured and usually matches the ground pattern. In residential areas, they sometimes take to nesting on roof-tops. They have been recorded nesting on the stones between the rails of a railway track, the adult leaving the nest when trains passed. Nests that have been threatened by agricultural operations have been manually translocated by gradually shifting the eggs. When nesting they will attempt to dive bomb or distract potential predators. Both the male and female incubate the eggs and divert predators using distraction displays or flash their wings to deter any herbivores that threaten the nest. Males appear to relieve females incubating at the nest particularly towards the hot part of noon. The eggs hatch in 28 to 30 days. The reproductive success is about 40%. Egg mortality is high due to predation by mongooses, crows and kites. Chicks have a lower mortality and their survival improves after the first week.

Like other lapwings, they soak their belly feathers to provide water to their chicks as well as to cool the eggs during hot weather.

They bathe in pools of water when available and will often spend time on preening when leaving the nest or after copulation. They sometimes rest on the ground with the tarsi laid flat on the ground and at other times may rest on one leg.

Healthy adult birds have few predators and are capable of rapid and agile flight when pursued by hawks or falcons. Hugh B. Cott claimed that the flesh of the bird was unpalatable based on evidence from an Indian geologist who noted that a hungry tiger cub refused to eat their meat. Some endoparasitic tapeworms, nematodes, and trematodes have been described from the species. Mortality caused by respiratory infection by "Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale" has been recorded in captive birds in Pakistan.

Food

The diet of the lapwing includes a range of insects, snails and other invertebrates, mostly picked from the ground. They may also feed on some grains. They feed mainly during the day but they may also feed at night. They may sometimes make use of the legs to disturb insect prey from soft soil.