Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Somalia.
Population
Estimated population is 65,000 - 280,000 (2010).
Status LC
Habitat loss through commercial afforestation, hunting and trading, are the main threats.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Food
Omnivorous. Mainly insects such as grasshoppers, locusts, beetles, crickets, termites and various aquatic insects. Also worms, coarse grass leaves and grass seeds.
African Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus) [XC290137]
by Bram Piot from Green Acres Farm, Machadodorp, Mpumalanga, South Africa (alarm call, flight call)
African Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus) [XC690398]
by Derek Solomon from Senegambia Hotel Garden, Serrekunda, Gambia (alarm call)
Nest
A shallow depression situated in short grass, on bare ground or amongst weeds in fallow fields, frequently near roads or human settlements, and always within 100 m of water.
Subspecies
Western population of subspecies lateralis sometimes considered separate subspecies, solitaneus. Subspecies major not always accepted, as occurs at end of cline in size from west to east.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
senegallus (Linnaeus, 1766) - South-western Mauritania, Senegambia and north-western Sierra Leone east to Sudan, north-eastern Zaire and northern Uganda.
major (Neumann, 1914) - Western and central Ethiopia and Eritrea.
lateralis Smith, A, 1839 - Southern Congo and Angola east to southern Uganda, and south through western Tanzania, southern Zaire, Zambia and Malawi to Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and north-eastern South Africa.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet