A Lapwing mother calls in its inimitable style - a stentorian 'Did-you-do-it' call! (Koels also call in the background audio.) It bends its knees forward and pecks off bits of egg-shell from the ground, as the chicks have just been born. The calcium from the shells will help nourish the mother's bones after the arduous task of egg-laying.
Gasping in the hot and humid 45 degrees of a New Delhi summer day, just as the monsoons are about to hit, this newly-born Lapwing chick doesn't know what has hit it! Fresh out of the egg, with its white egg-tooth visible at the tip of its beak (to aid in breaking out of the egg!), it gasps and awaits instructions from its mother, even as an adjacent egg contains a chick that has yet to be born...
Note the perfect camouflage! When still, the bird can barely be seen. When walking, the chick is a bit of a disaster for it has yet to learn to locomote, Lapwing-style! See how it takes a tumble when attempting to move forward... !
These three Lapwing chicks were born before our eyes! They still have the white dot of an egg-tooth on their beaks (which helped them crack out of their eggs!). The shocking world of noise, bright light and heat around them does not intimidate them unduly and they scuttle about their nest on the ground until Mummy comes along with her belly wet (to keep them cool) and orders them under her!
One of the eggs - the fourth and last one, stills remains unborn!
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of 50, 000+ hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, XDCAM and 4K. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South A
