Crested Lark | Galerida cristata

Voice

The call is a plaintive, whistled dwee-dwee-dwoo or tee-tee-too-ee, often heard as a bird flushes. The song is a varied series of whistles and mimicry, delivered from the ground, a post or a roof, or in a high song flight.

Identification

17–19 cm, sturdy, with a long, pointed crest that projects as a spike from the rear of the head even at rest. The bill is fairly long and slightly curved. Upperparts sandy to grey-brown with faint streaks, breast with rather diffuse brown streaks on a buff ground. In flight the broad wings, pale rufous underwings and short dark tail with rusty-buff sides stand out. Sexes alike. Colour matches the ground, from pale sandy in the Sahara and Arabia to greyer brown in the north. On the high plateaux and at the Saharan edge of Morocco and Algeria lives a large form with a strikingly thick, long bill (macrorhyncha), which some lists treat as a separate species, Maghreb Lark.

Confusion species

Thekla's Lark (Galerida theklae) is smaller, with a shorter, fan-shaped crest, a shorter bill, sharper breast streaks, a rufous rump and grey underwings; it occurs only in the Maghreb. Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis) has a blunt crest, a white trailing edge to the wing and white tail sides. Desert Lark (Ammomanes deserti) lacks a crest and has a plain, unstreaked breast. Greater Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla) is smaller, with a short conical bill and an unstreaked breast.

Habitat

Almost any open, dry terrain with bare patches: fields and fallow land, road verges, village and town edges, building sites, oases and date gardens, semi-desert with low shrubs and coastal plains. Absent from dense forest, high mountains and true sand seas.

Range and movements

Common throughout the Maghreb, from the Mediterranean coast to the oases on the northern edge of the Sahara, and in Libya along the coast and in the oases. In Egypt in the Nile Valley and Delta, in the oases of the Western Desert, along the north coast and in Sinai. In the Levant common in Israel, Judea and Samaria, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and widespread over almost all of Iraq. On the Arabian Peninsula in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia outside the deep sand deserts, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Yemen; in the Emirates very common over almost the whole country, having colonised islands such as Das and Abu al-Abyad and remote desert since the 1990s. Absent from Socotra. Beyond the region from Europe through the Sahel and Central Asia to China and Korea.

• Resident
• Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
• Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
• Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

How and when to look

It is everywhere; use that to learn its shape and call well, as this helps with Thekla's Lark in Morocco and with the many other larks of the desert. In eastern Morocco and Algeria look out for the thick-billed birds of the steppe.

Conservation status

Not threatened. A clear decline has been recorded in Europe, but in the region it is common and benefits from arable farming, irrigation and building; in the Emirates the population may be increasing.

Scientific name

Galerida cristata | (Linnaeus, 1758)

Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Alauda cristata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Galerida was introduced in 1828 by Boie. Galerida is Latin for a crested lark, from galerum 'cap', after the upright crest. cristata is Latin for 'crested', from crista 'crest'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Vienna.