Lapwings are commonly seen shore birds in Kruger national Park.  The White crowned Lapwing to the right shows both sexes which look alike and are not as common as their relative the Blacksmith Lapwing shown below.  Both can be found along sandy shores of rivers and

dams and lakes where they are relatively sedentary.  They live in pairs or small groups of six to twelve in the non breeding season.  They mainly feed on insects, worms, molluscs, small crustaceans, frogs and even small fish.

The Lapwings are monogamous and nest in shallow scrapes in the sand, usually not far from the water.  A clutch of 2-4 eggs incubated by both sexes hatch in about 26 days.

We recently watched a Blacksmith Lapwing pair take on a huge elephant while trying to save the nest from being crushed by the huge elephant. The Lapwings would not back down and put on quite a display to keep the elephant away from their nest of eggs.