---
title: "Witstaartkievit"
description: "Vanellus leucurus — Vogels. The white-tailed lapwing or white-tailed plover (Vanellus leucurus) is a wader in the lapwing genus."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/white-tailed-lapwing
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Witstaartkievit

> Vanellus leucurus — Vogels. The white-tailed lapwing or white-tailed plover (Vanellus leucurus) is a wader in the lapwing genus.

- Scientific name: *Vanellus leucurus*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Meren en rivieren)
- iNaturalist observations: 886
- Wikidata: [Q827245](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q827245)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4860](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4860)

## Names

- en: White-tailed Lapwing
- de: Weißschwanzkiebitz
- es: Avefría Coliblanca
- fr: Vanneau à queue blanche
- nl: Witstaartkievit
- pt: Abibe-de-cauda-branca
- pl: Czajka stepowa

## Countries with the most observations

IN (225), RU (103), UZ (80), AM (61), IR (57), AE (33), KZ (33), IL (32), GB (31), EG (19), IQ (16), PK (16)

## Summary

The white-tailed lapwing or white-tailed plover (Vanellus leucurus) is a wader in the lapwing genus. The genus name Vanellus is Medieval Latin for a lapwing and derives from vannus, which refers to a winnowing fan. The specific leucurus is from Ancient Greek leukouros, "white-tailed".
This medium-sized lapwing is long-legged and fairly long-billed. It is the only lapwing likely to be seen in other than very shallow water, where it picks insects and other small prey mainly from the surface.
Adults are slim erect birds with a brown back and foreneck, paler face and grey breast. Its long yellow legs, pure white tail…

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

## Photo

![Witstaartkievit](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/white-tailed-lapwing/medium.jpg)

Photo: James Eaton · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/199088376

## Machine access

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