First described as Charadrius cayanus by Latham in 1790. More recently it was given its own genus Hoploxypterus (Ridgeway 1919) and then has been lumped in with the Vanellus lapwings (Bock 1958).
It is smaller than the other South American lapwings in the genus Vanellus and does look out of place there. Southern Lapwing and Andean Lapwing (itself lumped from its own genus Ptiloscelys by Bock 1958) are bigger and more typical of the genus.
Athough the Pied Lapwing's colouration resembles the patterns of the Charadrius plovers, it is much longer legged and doesn't really seem to fit there either.
http://www.waderquest.org/2013/07/pied-lapwing-is-it-really-vanellus.html
It is smaller than the other South American lapwings in the genus Vanellus and does look out of place there. Southern Lapwing and Andean Lapwing (itself lumped from its own genus Ptiloscelys by Bock 1958) are bigger and more typical of the genus.
Athough the Pied Lapwing's colouration resembles the patterns of the Charadrius plovers, it is much longer legged and doesn't really seem to fit there either.
http://www.waderquest.org/2013/07/pied-lapwing-is-it-really-vanellus.html