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Red-wattled Lapwing
टिटहरी
A loud black, white and brown wader of lake shores, playing fields and dry open ground.
How to recognise it
A crimson fleshy wattle in front of each eye and a bright red bill base. You usually hear it first — a repeated, rising did-he-do-it as it flies up in alarm.
Where to see it
Ajmer
Across northern India the lapwing is called titahri, and children everywhere are told that it sleeps on its back with its legs in the air to hold up the falling sky. It nests on bare ground with no nest at all, which is why it is so noisy. On Ana Sagar it is one of the five commonest birds, present on more than seventy per cent of survey visits.
Ana Sagar Lake · Daulat Bagh (Subhash Udyan) (often) · Foy Sagar Lake (Varun Sagar)
Chandigarh
The lapwing's habit of sleeping with its legs in the air is a stock joke in Hindi: «the titahri holding up the sky».
Sukhna Lake · Leisure Valley · Siswan Dam and Community Reserve