The lapwing is easy to spot with its lazy flapping flight. The lapwing is noted for being able to fly doing acrobatic tricks. 
It is very well known for its unusual "pee wit" call during the breeding season. Lapwings can be seen in groups of up to ten thousand birds nearly always in open wet grass lands. It is called a 'wader' because you can usually spot them splashing around in shallow water looking for food.


The Lapwing looks black and white from a distance but is in fact a greenish colour up close. It is a member of the "plover " family. It is found all over Ireland. They gather in large flocks in winter.

It has a lovely little feather, like an Indian on the top of its head. This is only visible on adult birds and not on young birds. Like the corncrake it has suffered from changes in farming land over the past twenty years. Their eggs are usually an olive brown colour with fairly large blackish spots and marks.

In winter huge numbers of lapwings migrate to Ireland from the East, where the conditions are mostly much more severe. Some birds are known to fly in just a few weeks from breeding grounds among the snow and ice of Greenland and northern Canada down to the West Coast of Europe around the bulge of west Africa to wintering grounds on the southern tip of Africa.

The stamp was issued in Phase 2 on August 27th. 1997.