Habitat
Dry, open areas such as lightly wooded savannas, open grassland with bushes and scrub, patches of burnt grass in Accacia spp., woodland and sparsely vegetated short grassland. Also, cultivated land, airfields, pastures and the margins of lakes and rivers.
Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Gambia, Senegal.
Southern Mali; north of forest zone in Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast; coast from Sierra Leone to south-western Nigeria; Gabon, western Zaire and central-western Angola east to Kenya, and south through Tanzania, north-eastern Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to eastern South Africa (Natal); Zanzibar, Latham and Mafia Is.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is 25,000 - 70,000 (2010).
Senegal Lapwing (Vanellus lugubris) [XC339525]
by James Bradley from Kasanka National Park, Northern Province, Zambia (call)
Senegal Lapwing (Vanellus lugubris) [XC411262]
by Ted Floyd from Marracuene, Maputo, Mozambique (song)
Nest
A scrape or depression positioned on burnt ground with newly sprouting grass, on bare patches in grassland or on ploughed land.
Subspecies
Has been proposed to form superspecies with Black-winged Lapwing (Vanellus melanopterus), but this is not supported by behavioural or morphological data.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet