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White-tailed Lapwings medium-sized waders. The head is greyish-brown, with somewhat lighter eye-rings and lores. Except for white sides, vent, undertail coverts and an off-white belly the rest of the plumage is dark greyish-brown. When the wings are folded, the white wing bars and black outer flight feathers are almost invisible. The underwings are grey, with black outer flight feathers. The irises are dark. The rather long, straight bill is near-black. The very long legs and feet are bright-yellow. Juveniles have heavily scalloped upperwing coverts and a streaked crown.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the White-tailed Lapwing is available HERE .

White-tailed Lapwings are a partially migratory species. Their breeding range extends from inland marshes in Iraq, Iran to southern Russia. While the population in Iraq and Iran is mainly resident, birds breeding in Russia migrate southwards in winter to the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and North-east Africa.

In Arabia White-tailed Lapwings are sometimes seen on passage, but some birds also stay, both during the summers (around the Persian Gulf) and winters (eastern Arabia), including the northern coast of Oman.

White-tailed Lapwings are found around both fresh and saline water, such as marshes, ponds or lakes.

A White-tailed Lapwing was first seen by us around water puddles in an otherwise dry riverbed (wadi) at Qurm, near Muscat, Oman, in December 2009.