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The White-tailed Lapwing, was spotted in Dubai for the first time in the Year 2007.

White-tailed Lapwing or White-tailed Plover [Vanellus Leucurus] is a wader in the Lapwing family of birds. The bird breeds semi-colonially on inland marshes in Iraq, Iran and southern Russia. The Iraqi and Iranian breeders are mainly resident, but Russian birds migrate south in winter to south Asia, the Middle East and north east Africa. It is a very rare vagrant in western Europe. The white-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus) is a graceful bird that is characterised by its unusually long, bright yellow legs, which are so long that they extend beyond the tail feathers during flight. The white-tailed lapwing has a relatively long, dark bill, and when on the ground, its plumage looks quite drab, with a grey chest and a pinkish-brown head and back. However, when the white-tailed lapwing takes off it reveals its striking blackand-white wing pattern and its all-white tail, for which it is named (3). A white-tailed lapwing hatchling has greyish upperparts with black streaks, and a rustyred ring around the eye. The juvenile has a mottled, grey-brown neck and breast, and dark-centred feathers on its upperparts. There is no seasonal variation in the colouring of the adults (2).

The Houbara Bustard is often found in desert rangelands and steppe habitat. Their natural distribution covers North Africa, Arabia and central and southern Asia. Wild Houbara are migratory birds and winter visitors to Abu Dhabi arriving in the Emirate around the end of September The Asian houbara migrates south every winter from its breeding grounds (Central Asia, China and Mongolia), and heads to its wintering habitats (Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and parts of the Arabian Peninsula, including UAE). At one time, the Arabian Peninsula itself had healthy resident breeding population, but these have been hunted almost to extinction. Only parts of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman still have regular, though small, breeding populations. A striking bird resembling a turkey in shape, the houbara bustard is at its most magnificent during the courtship display. It is a slender bird, with a tuft of hairs in the centre of the crown, and long plumes of feathers drooping over the neck, the uppermost feathers being black while the lower ones are white with black tips (7). The body is pale sandy-buff in colour, with darker brown lines and mottling, while the underside is white (2). Large areas of black and brown occur on the flight feathers and the long, square tail is sandy-chestnut and patterned with four distinct blue-black bars (7). Male houbara bustards are slightly larger than females (2).

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