Lark

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occurs in Australia. Habitats vary widely, but many species live in drier regions. When the word "lark" is used without specification, it often refers to the Eurasian skylark .

Taxonomy and systematics

The family Alaudidae was introduced in 1825 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors as a subfamily Alaudina of the finch family Fringillidae. Larks are a well-defined family, partly because of the shape of their. They have multiple scutes on the hind side of their tarsi, rather than the single plate found in most songbirds. They also lack a pessulus, the bony central structure in the syrinx of songbirds. They were long placed at or near the beginning of the songbirds or oscines, just after the suboscines and before the swallows, for example in the American Ornithologists' Union's first check-list. Some authorities, such as the British Ornithologists' Union and the Handbook of the Birds of the World, adhere to that placement. However, many other classifications follow the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy in placing the larks in a large oscine subgroup Passerida. For instance, the American Ornithologists' Union places larks just after the crows, shrikes, and vireos. At a finer level of detail, some now place the larks at the beginning of a superfamily Sylvioidea with the swallows, various "Old World warbler" and "babbler" groups, and others. Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that within the Sylvioidea the larks form a sister clade to the family Panuridae which contains a single species, the bearded reedling. The phylogeny of larks was reviewed in 2013, leading to the recognition of the arrangement below.
The genus level cladogram shown below is based on a molecular phylogenetic study of the larks by Per Alström and collaborators published in 2023. The subfamilies are those proposed by the authors. For two species the results conflict with the taxonomy published online in July 2023 by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee : the rusty bush lark and Gillett's lark were found to be embedded in the genus Calendulauda. Alström and collaborators proposed that the genus Mirafra should be split into four genera: Mirafra, Plocealauda, Amirafra and Corypha.

Extant genera

The family Alaudidae contains 98 extant species which are divided into 24 genera: For more detail, see list of lark species.

Image	Genus	Living species
	Alaemon Keyserling & Blasius, 1840	Greater hoopoe-lark Lesser hoopoe-lark
	Ammomanopsis Bianchi, 1905	Gray's lark
	Chersomanes Cabanis, 1851	Beesley's lark Spike-heeled lark
	Certhilauda Swainson, 1827	Short-clawed lark Karoo long-billed lark Eastern long-billed lark Cape long-billed lark
	Pinarocorys Shelley, 1902	Dusky lark Rufous-rumped lark
	Ramphocoris Bonaparte, 1850	Thick-billed lark
	Ammomanes Cabanis, 1851	Desert lark Bar-tailed lark Rufous-tailed lark
	Eremopterix Kaup, 1836	Black-eared sparrow-lark Madagascar lark Black-crowned sparrow-lark Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark Ashy-crowned sparrow-lark Chestnut-headed sparrow-lark Grey-backed sparrow-lark Fischer's sparrow-lark
	Calendulauda Blyth, 1855	Sabota lark Pink-breasted lark Foxy lark Fawn-coloured lark Karoo lark Red lark Dune lark Barlow's lark
	Heteromirafra Grant, 1913	Rudd's lark Archer's lark Clarke, 1920
	Plocealauda Alström et al., 2023	Burmese bush lark, Plocealauda microptera Indochinese bush lark, Plocealauda erythrocephala Jerdon's bush lark, Plocealauda affinis Indian bush lark, Plocealauda erythroptera Bengal bush lark, Plocealauda assamica
	Mirafra Horsfield, 1821	Monotonous lark, Mirafra passerina Kordofan lark, Mirafra cordofanica Williams's lark, Mirafra williamsi Friedmann's lark, Mirafra pulpa White-tailed lark, Mirafra albicauda Melodious lark, Mirafra cheniana Singing bush lark, Mirafra javanica
	Amirafra Bianchi, 1906	Collared lark, Amirafra collaris Flappet lark, Amirafra rufocinnamomea Angola lark, Amirafra angolensis
	Corypha Gray, GR, 1840	Highland lark, Corypha kurrae Cape clapper lark, Corypha apiata Eastern clapper lark, Corypha fasciolata Plains lark, Corypha kabalii Plateau lark, Corypha nigrescens Rufous-naped lark, Corypha africana Sentinel lark, Corypha athi Somali lark, Corypha somalica Red-winged lark, Corypha hypermetra Russet lark, Corypha sharpii Kidepo lark, Corypha kidepoensis
	Lullula Kaup, 1829	Woodlark
	Spizocorys Sundevall, 1872	Obbia lark Sclater's lark Stark's lark Short-tailed lark Masked lark Botha's lark Pink-billed lark
	Alauda Linnaeus, 1758	White-winged lark Raso lark Oriental skylark Eurasian skylark
	Galerida Boie, F, 1828	Sykes's lark Sun lark Large-billed lark Thekla lark Crested lark Malabar lark
	Eremophila F. Boie, 1828	Horned lark Temminck's lark
	Calandrella Kaup, 1829	Hume's short-toed lark Mongolian short-toed lark Blanford's lark Rufous-capped lark Red-capped lark Greater short-toed lark
	Melanocorypha F. Boie, 1828	Bimaculated lark Calandra lark Black lark Mongolian lark Tibetan lark
	Chersophilus Sharpe, 1890	Dupont's lark
	Eremalauda WL Sclater, 1926	Dunn's lark Arabian lark
	Alaudala Horsfield & Moore, 1858	Somali short-toed lark, Alaudala somalica Asian short-toed lark, Alaudala cheleensis Mediterranean short-toed lark, Alaudala rufescens Sand lark, Alaudala raytal Turkestan short-toed lark, Alaudala heinei

Extinct genera

Genus Eremarida –

Description

Larks, or the family Alaudidae, are small- to medium-sized birds, in length and in mass. The smallest larks are likely the Spizocorys species, which can weigh only around in species like the pink-billed lark and the Obbia lark, while the largest lark is the Tibetan lark.
Like many ground birds, most lark species have long hind claws, which are thought to provide stability while standing. Most have streaked brown plumage, some boldly marked with black or white. Their dull appearance camouflages them on the ground, especially when on the nest. They feed on insects and seeds; though adults of most species eat seeds primarily, all species feed their young insects for at least the first week after hatching. Many species dig with their bills to uncover food. Some larks have heavy bills for cracking seeds open, while others have long, down-curved bills, which are especially suitable for digging.
Larks are the only passerines that lose all their feathers in their first moult. This may result from the poor quality of the chicks' feathers, which in turn may result from the benefits to the parents of switching the young to a lower-quality diet, which requires less work from the parents.
In many respects, including long tertial feathers, larks resemble other ground birds such as pipits. However, in larks the tarsus has only one set of scales on the rear surface, which is rounded. Pipits and all other songbirds have two plates of scales on the rear surface, which meet at a protruding rear edge.

Calls and song

Larks have more elaborate calls than most birds, and often extravagant songs given in display flight. These melodious sounds, combined with a willingness to expand into anthropogenic habitats—as long as these are not too intensively managed—have ensured larks a prominent place in literature and music, especially the Eurasian skylark in northern Europe and the crested lark and calandra lark in southern Europe.

Behaviour

Breeding

Male larks use song flights to defend their breeding territory and attract a mate. Most species build nests on the ground, usually cups of dead grass, but in some species the nests are more complicated and partly domed. A few desert species nest very low in bushes, perhaps so circulating air can cool the nest. Larks' eggs are usually speckled. The size of the clutch is very variable and ranges from the single egg laid by Sclater's lark up to 6–8 eggs laid by the calandra lark and the black lark. Larks incubate for 11 to 16 days.