Short-tailed lark

Short-tailed lark
P. f. delamerei in Serengeti N.P.
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Alaudidae
Genus:	Spizocorys
Species:	S. fremantlii
Binomial name
Spizocorys fremantlii (Lort Phillips, 1897)
Subspecies
see text
resident range
Synonyms
Calendula fremantlii Galerida fremantlii Pseudalaemon fremantlii Short tailed lark

The short-tailed lark (Spizocorys fremantlii) is a species of lark in the Alaudidae family.

It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania. Its natural habitats are dry savannah, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland.^[1]

Illustrated by Keulemans

Taxonomy and systematics

The short-tailed lark was originally placed in the genus Calendula (which was subsequently renamed to Galerida) and then to the monotypic genus Pseudalaemon before it was re-classified to Spizocorys in 2014.^[2][3]

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognized:^[4]

• Somali short-tailed lark (S. f. fremantlii) - (Lort Phillips, 1897): Found in south-eastern Ethiopia and Somalia
• S. f. megaensis - (Benson, 1946): Found in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya
• Kenya short-tailed lark (S. f. delamerei) - (Sharpe, 1900): Found in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania

Behaviour and ecology

Food and feeding

The diet of the short-tailed lark is comprised mostly of vegetable material.^[5]

References

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1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2012). "Pseudalaemon fremantlii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
2. ↑ "Spizocorys fremantlii - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2016-12-03. 
3. ↑ "Taxonomy 4.1 to 4.4 « IOC World Bird List". www.worldbirdnames.org. Retrieved 2016-12-03. 
4. ↑ "IOC World Bird List 6.4". IOC World Bird List Datasets. doi:10.14344/ioc.ml.6.4. 
5. ↑ Donald, Paul (2010-06-30). The Skylark. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781408133347. 
6. 1 2 3 "ITIS Report: Pseudalaemon". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 8 August 2014.