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| Photo: Masked Lapwing ssp. novaehollandiae. |
The two masked lapwings in this post were photographed in Australia and are just about as far apart as they could be and both still be on Australian soil, separated by 3,854km (2,395 miles). That's about the same distance as it would be from Liverpool to Cairo, or Tiblisi in Georgia. They are also in completely different environments which are also just about as different as they could be. The bird above is on the steps of Sydney Opera House in New South Wales, in the south east of the country, whilst the bird below is on a playing field at Exmouth in Western Australia. One is in the middle of the largest city in Australia, the other is in a frontier town in the middle of semi desert.
They are of course the same species, but the Sydney bird is of the race
novaehollandiae which is the race most likely to be encountered by overseas visitors to Australia, being found around Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, whilst the Exmouth bird is race
miles which is found almost exclusively in the north from Cairns west to Darwin and Broome. Interestingly neither race should reach Exmouth according to my books.
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| Masked Lapwing ssp. miles. |
Subspecies
miles lacks the black markings on the hindneck and side of the breast which is present in
novaehollandiae and is also smaller, slimmer, longer legged and longer billed, and most impressively it has much larger lappets. Notice also that the yellow on the face and lappets extends over the eye on ssp.
miles.
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| Photo: Banded Lapwing. |
Banded lapwing is the much smaller cousin, this bird was photographed in Busselton in Western Australia.
