Somali short-toed lark

Somali short-toed lark
An 1897 illustration of the Somali short-toed lark
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Alaudidae
Genus:	Alaudala
Species:	A. somalica
Binomial name
Alaudala somalica Sharpe, 1895
Synonyms
Alaudula somalica Calandrella rufescens somalica Calandrella somalica [2]

The Somali short-toed lark (Alaudala somalica) is a small passerine bird of the lark family found in eastern and north-eastern Africa.

The habitat of the Somali short-toed lark is subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland.

Taxonomy

The Somali short-toed lark was formally described in 1895 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe based on a specimen collected on the Haud plateau of Somalia by the American explorer Arthur Donaldson Smith. Sharpe coined the binomial name Alaudala somalica. ^[3] The Somali short-toed lark was formerly sometimes treated as a subspecies of the Mediterranean short-toed lark (Alaudala rufescens). ^[4]

Three subspecies are recognised: ^[5]

• A. s. perconfusa (White, CMN, 1960) – northwest Somalia
• A. s. somalica Sharpe, 1895 – east Ethiopia and north Somalia
• A. s. megaensis (Benson, 1946) – south Ethiopia to central Kenya

References

1. BirdLife International (2017). "Alaudala somalica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2017 e.T22717340A111109120. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T22717340A111109120.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
2. Ryan, P. "Somali Short-toed Lark (Calandrella somalica)" . Handbook of the Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. doi:10.2173/bow.sstlar1.01. S2CID   216384296 . Retrieved 4 June 2015.
3. Sharpe, Richard Bowdler (1895). "On a collection of birds made by Dr. A. Donaldson Smith during his recent expedition in Western Somaliland". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 457-520 [472].
4. Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 51.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Nicators, Bearded Reedling, larks". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 10 March 2025.