Dupont's lark

Dupont's lark
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Alaudidae
Genus: Chersophilus
Sharpe, 1890
Species: C. duponti
Binomial name
Chersophilus duponti
(Vieillot, 1824)
Synonyms
  • Alauda Duponti

Dupont's lark (Chersophilus duponti) is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae of the monotypic genus Chersophilus. It is found in northern Africa and Spain.

Taxonomy and systematics

Dupont's lark was originally described by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1820 and placed in the genus Alauda.[2][3] It was named for the French naturalist Léonard Puech Dupont, who had collected the species and showed it to Vieillot.[4]

Subspecies

Two subspecies are recognized:[5]

  • North-western Dupont's lark (C. d. duponti) - (Vieillot, 1824): Found in southern Spain, northern Morocco, northern Algeria and northern Tunisia
  • South-eastern Dupont's lark (C. d. margaritae) - (Koenig, AF, 1888): Originally described as a separate species in the genus Alaemon. Found from central Algeria to western Egypt

Description

Like most other larks, Dupont's lark is an undistinguished looking species on the ground. It is 17–18 cm long, slim, with a long neck, long legs and a fine slightly curved bill. It has a thin pale crown stripe and a dark-streaked breast. The north-western Dupont's lark of Europe and north-west Africa is mainly brown-grey above and pale below. The south-eastern Dupont's lark, which occupies most of the rest of the African range, has rufous upperparts.

Vocalisations

Its song is a repeated thin, melancholic whistling phrase, very ventriloquial (difficult to locate) and a nasal whistle given mainly at dawn and dusk or at night.

Distribution and habitat

It breeds across much of northern Africa, from Algeria to Egypt, and in Spain and France.[1] It is a non-migratory resident.

Behaviour and ecology

This is a very shy species, which runs for cover when disturbed. It is difficult to see while running among vegetation but it sometimes sings, standing upright on the edge of a low bush.

Breeding

This is a bird of open sandy semi-desert or steppe with some grass. Its nest is on the ground, with three or four eggs being laid. Its food is seeds and insects.

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2012). "Chersophilus duponti". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1820) Faune française, ou Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des animaux qui se trouvent en France, constamment ou passagèrement, à la surface du sol, dans les eaux qui le baignent, et dans le lit, pages 173-174 (in French)
  3. ↑ "Chersophilus duponti - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
  4. ↑ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2014). The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. New York, NY, USA: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4729-0574-1.
  5. ↑ "IOC World Bird List 6.4". IOC World Bird List Datasets. doi:10.14344/ioc.ml.6.4.


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