Birdpass
English
Turkestan Short-toed Lark

Turkestan Short-toed Lark

Alaudala heinei

Identify the Turkestan Short-toed Lark by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

  • Download on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play

The Turkestan Short-toed Lark is a small lark of open country across the Eurasian interior, from Ukraine and central Turkey through Central Asia and southern Siberia to south-central Mongolia and south to Afghanistan. It was long lumped with the Mediterranean Short-toed Lark as the “Lesser Short-toed Lark”, but a 2020 study recognised them as separate species. Four subspecies are recognised.

Did you know?

  • The species name heinei honours the German ornithologist Ferdinand Heine; Alaudala is a diminutive of Alauda.
  • Once treated as the same species as the Mediterranean Short-toed Lark, it was split in 2020.

About the species

Identification

A small, sandy-brown, finely streaked lark with pale underparts and faintly streaked breast. Wing markings are few and the hind claw fairly short for a lark; the overall impression is pale and low-contrast. It closely resembles the Mediterranean Short-toed Lark, and identification often requires close views and attention to calls.

Family

Alaudidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, white, grey

About the habitat

Open, dry landscapes such as steppe, semi-desert plains and sparsely vegetated fields, often near saline ground.

Diet

Mainly seeds, supplemented by small insects and other invertebrates picked from the ground and low vegetation.

Behaviour

A ground-dwelling lark that forages by walking and pecking and makes quick, low flights when disturbed. It sings from the ground or in song flights over open terrain, and gathers in flocks outside the breeding season.

Sources

Photo: Jan Ebr, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alaudala heinei - Heinestummellerche 202746307.jpg

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkestan_short-toed_lark

See also