Somali short-toed lark

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Somali short-toed lark
Alaudula somalica.jpg
An 1897 illustration of the Somali short-toed lark
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
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]

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.