Tuesday 2 September 2008

Spring is Sprung

Spring is sprung and new life is making its presence felt.

This funny little bird is a masked lapwing (what would we do without google). She and her mate had four tiny, tiny chicks in tow.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

ahh aren't they the cutest! I will be on the lookout for chicks around here - we have a number of pairs of lapwings near where we live

Julie said...

Awwww ... what a great set of images. And the light you have used is terrific.

Unknown said...

That is a beautiful bird! I think I have never seen it before... And the chick is so cute!!!

Julie said...

Mmmm ... had to go on a search because I had always thought this bird to be a Spur-winged Plover. but thanks to your mate Wiki, I am now thoroughly confused.

Read this: There are two distinct races which until recently were thought to be separate species. The Masked Lapwing of Northern Australia (Vanellus miles miles) has an all-white neck and large yellow wattles with the Male having a distinctive mask and larger wattles, the Spur-winged Plover of the southern and eastern states (Vanellus miles novaehollandiae) has a black neck-stripe and smaller wattles. (Note that the northern hemisphere Spur-winged Plover is a different bird: see Spur-winged Plover.)

I think I will leave all this "naturalist" stuff up to David Attenborough!!

Ming the Merciless said...

Classic ugly duckling metamorphosis.

Baby birds are never pretty, unlike baby mammals.

Danial Bigham said...

It's beautiful bird.

Kris McCracken said...

A lot of people mistake the banded lapwing, and masked lapwing, for plovers. People interchange the names all the time here in Tasmania.

We have a lot of lapwings around here. They are great parents, always on the lookout!