Crested Lark

About the Crested Lark

The crested lark (Galerida cristata) is a species of lark widespread across Eurasia and northern Africa. It is a non-migratory bird, but can occasionally be found as a vagrant in Great Britain. The crested lark was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It was classified in the genus Alauda until German naturalist Friedrich Boie placed it in the new genus Galerida in 1821. Colin Harrison recommended lumping members of Galerida and Lullula back into Alauda in 1865 due to a lack of defining characteristics. The current scientific name is derived from Latin. Galerida was the name for a lark with a crest, from galerum, "cap", and cristata means "crested". Alban Guillaumet and colleagues noted the distinctiveness of populations from the Maghreb—birds in the dryer parts of Morocco and Tunisia had longer bills while those in more coastal northern parts had shorter bills typical of the European subspecies. The authors sampled the mitochondrial DNA and found they were distinct genetically.

Thirty-five subspecies are recognized: G. c. pallida Brehm, CL, 1858 – Iberian... Wikipedia →