This photo was taken on the steppe south of Astana.
Photo: © Alastair Rae
Identification 27-30 cm. Large, strikingly patterned plover. Adult greyish with black and chestnut belly. White supercilium and black crown and eye-stripe. Winter adult brownish but retains supercilium and crown pattern. Juvenile brown, slightly scalloped above, and streaked black below with large white supercilium.

Population estimate 600 - 1,800 (2.500-3.000 Rare Birds Yearbook 2008)
decreasing
Range estimate (breeding/resident) 1,927,000 km2

The Sociable Lapwing, Vanellus gregarius, breeds in Russia and Kazakhstan, dispersing through
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia,
Syria and Turkey, to key wintering sites in Israel, Eritrea, Sudan and north-west India.
Birds winter occasionally in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Oman.


Image courtesy of Maxim Koshkin
It has suffered a very rapid decline and range contraction.
In northern Kazakhstan, a decline of 40% between 1930-1960, was followed by a further halving of numbers between 1960-1987. These declines have continued, or even accelerated,
to the point that the current population is estimated to be only 600-1,800 individuals.

It has a sporadic and irruptive pattern of semi-colonial breeding, mainly in the transition zones
between Stipa and Artemisia grassland steppes where bare saline areas occur near water-bodies.


Image courtesy of Maxim Koshkin
Exact breeding habitat requirements are poorly known. It has recently been postulated that it evolved
to nest in the short swards left in the wake of enormous wintering herds of saiga Saiga tartarica.
The wintering grounds are dry plains, sandy wastes and short grass areas, often adjacent to water.

Threats Key factors explaining the magnitude of recent declines remain unknown.
On the breeding grounds, it is threatened by the conversion of steppe to arable cultivation,
but large areas of apparently suitable breeding habitat are unoccupied.

The species habitat may however have been altered by a reduction in grazing by large herds
of native ungulates and, latterly, by the loss of the enormous herds of domestic grazing animals
from state-sponsored collective farms.


Image courtesy of Maxim Koshkin
Breeding may now only occur in vicinity of villages which exposes birds to additional threats,
such as predation by dogs and cats, and human disturbance.
Many colonies are destroyed during agricultural operations or are predated by
Rook Corvus frugilegus, which have increased considerably in breeding regions.
Nests in grazed areas may suffer from trampling. It may also have been adversely affected by the increasingly dry climate in its breeding and wintering range.
Source: http://www.birdlife.org