---
title: "Maskerkievit"
description: "Vanellus miles — Vogels. The masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia (particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent), New Zealand and New Guinea."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/masked-lapwing
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Maskerkievit

> Vanellus miles — Vogels. The masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia (particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent), New Zealand and New Guinea.

- Scientific name: *Vanellus miles*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `grassland` (Weiden en velden), `freshwater` (Meren en rivieren), `farm` (Boerderij)
- iNaturalist observations: 32766
- Wikidata: [Q839366](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q839366)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4872](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4872)

## Names

- en: Masked Lapwing
- de: Maskenkiebitz
- es: Avefría militar
- fr: Vanneau soldat
- nl: Maskerkievit
- pl: Czajka płatkolica

## Countries with the most observations

AU (26952), NZ (3852), SG (206), PG (39), ID (7), NC (5), FJ (3)

## Summary

The masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia (particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent), New Zealand and New Guinea. It spends most of its time on the ground searching for food such as insects and worms and has several distinctive calls. It is common in Australian fields, open land and where there is lots of water, and is known for its defensive swooping behaviour during the nesting season.
Despite the species being also known as the masked plover and often called the spur-winged plover or just plover in its native range, lapwings are classified…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masked_lapwing

## Photo

![Maskerkievit](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/masked-lapwing/medium.jpg)

Photo: Philipp Hoenle · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189947280

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/masked-lapwing?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).