Plovers and lapwings | Charadriidae

Plevieren | Plovers and lapwings | Chorlitos y avefrías | Regenpfeifer | חופמיים וקיוויות

Compact birds with a large head, a short neck and a short bill thickened towards the tip — made for picking prey off the surface, not for probing into it. Black bands across breast and head break up the outline against bare ground, and many species tremble one foot on wet soil to bring worms to the surface. The clutch is almost always four pear-shaped eggs, points inwards in a scrape, and when danger comes the parents lure the intruder away with a feigned broken wing. Wing shape varies within the family: long and pointed in the species that migrate far, broad and rounded in the heavier ones, which gives them a slow, flapping flight.