The southern lapwing ( Vanellus chilensis), commonly called quero-quero in Brazil, or tero in Argentina and Uruguay, tero-tero in Paraguay, and queltehue in Chile is a wader in the order Charadriiformes. It is a common and widespread resident throughout South America, except in densely forested regions (e.g. most of the Amazon), the higher parts of the Andes Mountains, and the arid coast of a large part of western South America. This bird is particularly common in the basin of the Río de la Plata. It has also been spreading through Central America in recent years. It reached Trinidad in 1961, Tobago in 1974, and has rapidly increased on both islands, sporadically making its way North to Barbados where one pair mated, nested, and produced chicks in 2007. There have been sightings reported in North America with a verified sighting of a bird in Texas posted on Birda on the 17th April 2024.
Description
This
lapwing is the only crested wader in South America. It is in length and weighs approximately . The upperparts are mainly brownish grey, with a bronze glossing on the shoulders. The head is particularly striking; mainly grey with a black forehead and throat patch extending onto the black breast. A white border separates the black of the face from the grey of the head and crest. The rest of the underparts are white and the eye ring, legs, and most of the bill are pink. It is equipped with red bony extensions under the wings (spurs), used to intimidate foes and fight birds of prey.
During its slow flapping flight, the southern lapwing shows a broad white wing bar separating the grey-brown of the back and wing coverts from the black flight feathers. The rump is white and the tail black. The call is a very loud and harsh keek-keek-keek.
There are three or four subspecies, differing slightly in head coloration and voice. Vanellus chilensis fretensis from Patagonia is sometimes included in the nominate subspecies V. c. chilensis. The northern subspecies— V. c. cayennensis from the north and V. c. lampronotus from the south of the Amazon River—are sometimes separated as a distinct species, Vanellus cayennensis. These two subspecies have a browner head—particularly the northernmost birds—and the white face band (broad in the northern and narrow in the southern one) does not reach to the center of the crown. However, birds from the general region of Uruguay apparently intergrade.
Fossil record
In
prehistoric times, the species seems to have been more widespread.
Late Pleistocene lapwing bones from
Florida were initially described as
Dorypaltus prosphatus but have since been regarded as indistinguishable from those of the southern lapwing of the time, except by being smaller. Though they may not be specifically distinct, the lack of this bird's occurrence out of South America on a regular basis today suggests that they may be better considered a
paleosubspecies V. c. prosphatus. This would have disappeared as the last ice age ended, but
biogeography suggests that the species must also have occurred in
Central America and/or the
Caribbean. The entirely
extinct prehistoric species
V. downsi is closely related to the southern lapwing found in
California; its remains have been found at the La Brea Tar Pits in
Los Angeles. Separated by the
Rocky Mountains,
V. downsi makes an unlikely ancestor to the southern lapwing, but it is certainly possible that it was a northwestern
sister species.
[
]
Ecology
This is a lapwing of lake and river banks or open grassland. It has benefited from the extension of the latter habitat through widespread cattle ranching. When nesting in the vicinity of airports, it poses a threat to the safety of aerial traffic.[ Its food is mainly (such as )]
The southern lapwing breeds cooperatively in social groups and that social group consists of a breeding pair with one or two young from the previous breeding season.
Gallery
File:Southern lapwing chick.jpg|Southern lapwing chick
File:Ninho Quero-quero.jpg|Nest of V. c. lampronotus with small clutch
File:Vanellus chilensis Valdivia.jpg| V. c. chilensis (Valdivia, Chile)
File:Quero-Quero.Southern Lapwing.Teru-Teru.Vanellus Chilensis.JPG|Nesting V. c. lampronotus threatening photographer. Note spurs protruding from wrists.
File:Vanellus chilensis -Rio Grande do Sul -chick-8.jpg|Chick
File:Skeleton of Vanellus chilensis.JPG|Skeleton
File:Southern lapwing (Vanellus chilensis cayennensis).jpg| V. c. cayennensis, Tobago
File:Southern lapwing protecting one of its chicks under its wings.jpg|Southern lapwing with youngster under wings
File:Southern lapwing (Vanellus chilensis cayennensis) in flight Sumaco.jpg| V. c. cayennensis, Ecuador
File:Southern Lapwing - Indaiatuba, SP, BR - 01.jpg|A Southern Lapwing observed in the Parque do Mirim, Indaiatuba, SP, Brazil
Bibliography
External links
