The Red Wattled Lapwing, Vanellus indicus, is a lapwing or large plover, a wader in the family Charadriidae. It is sometimes called the did-ye-do-it bird due to its unmistakable call. Red-wattled Lapwings are large waders, about 35cm long (somewhat larger than a Rock Pigeon, with longer legs). The wings and back are light brown, but head and chest and front part of neck are black. Prominently white patch runs between these two colors, from belly and tail, flanking the neck to the sides of crown. Short tail is tipped black. A red fleshy wattle in front of each eye, black-tipped red bill, and the long legs are yellow. In flight, prominent white V-shaped wing bar. It usually keeps in pairs or trios in well-watered open country, ploughed fields, grazing land, and margins and dry beds of tanks and puddles. It is also found in forest clearings around rain-filled depressions. It runs about in short spurts and dips forward obliquely (with unflexed legs) to pick up food in a typical plover manner. Is uncannily and ceaselessly vigilant, day or night, and is the first to detect intrusions and raise an alarm, and therefore a nuisance to hunters. Flight rather slow, with deliberate flaps, but capable of remarkable agility when defending nest or being hunted by a hawk.

B R Hills/K Gudi, Karnataka, India.