Blanford's lark
| Blanford's lark | |
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| C. blanfordi (bottom, right) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Alaudidae |
| Genus: | Calandrella |
| Species: | C. blanfordi |
| Binomial name | |
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Calandrella blanfordi (Shelley, 1902) |
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| Subspecies | |
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see text |
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| range | |
| Synonyms | |
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see text
Blanford's lark or Blanford's short-toed lark (Calandrella blanfordi) is a small passerine bird of the lark family, Alaudidae, which is native to north-east Africa and Arabia. Its common name commemorates the English zoologist William Thomas Blanford.
Blanford's lark was formerly included in either the greater short-toed lark (C. brachydactyla) or the red-capped lark (C. cinerea) but is now commonly treated as a separate species. Erlanger's lark was formerly considered as a subspecies of Blanford's lark (as C. b. erlangeri or C. b. fuertesi). Alternate names for Blanford's lark include Blandford's lark, Blandford's short-toed lark and Blanford's red-capped lark.
Three subspecies are recognized:
Blanford's lark is 14–15 centimetres long. The upperparts are pale sandy-brown with some darker streaking and the crown is rufous. The underparts are pale and plain apart from a small dark patch on the side of the neck made up of vertical streaks. The greater short-toed lark is similar but has a greyer, more-streaked crown. Erlanger's and red-capped larks have darker upperparts with more streaking and a darker rufous crown. Erlanger's lark has larger dark neck-patches while in red-capped lark the patches are rufous.
Blanford's lark has a sparrow-like flight-call. The song is given in a circular song-flight and includes a mixture of chew-chew-chew-chew notes and fluid phrases.
They occur on open stony plains, often with bushes. In Arabia, it breeds between 1800 and 2500 metres above sea-level with some birds dispersing to lower ground in winter. The species is often seen in flocks outside the breeding season.
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