The Grey-headed Lapwing has a grey head, yellow legs, and a dark breast band; it breeds in Japan and northeastern China.
Its head and neck are grey, its back pale ochre-brown, and a dark band crosses the breast. The sexes look similar; juveniles are browner and lack a clear breast band.
It feeds on earthworms, insects, and snails in lowland grassland, marshes, lake and river edges, and rice fields.
In Japan it makes a ground depression lined with dead grass or straw in rice fields and nearby short vegetation. Clutches contain 1–5 eggs, most often four, and both parents take turns incubating for about 28 days.
Chicks leave the nest within two days of hatching and forage for themselves while following both parents. Adults brood the chicks and defend them from predators.
The bill is yellow with a black tip, and the eye-ring and small facial wattles are yellow. The iris is red-orange; black outer and white inner flight feathers stand out in flight.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.