Dupont's Lark
Chersophilus duponti
The same size as Eurasian Skylark, with a longer and more slender down-curved bill and small head. Cryptically-plumaged upperparts with pale feather edges, a heavily streaked breast, and a white belly. North African race paler still than Iberian birds. Found in natural steppes and semi-deserts, walking with its head up, looking tall. Fiendishly hard to see. Prefers to run when disturbed rather than fly. Melancholic song delivered high in the sky at dusk and dawn.
Identification
Like most other larks, Dupont's lark is an undistinguished looking species on the ground. It is 17–18 cm long, slim, with a long neck, long legs and a fine slightly curved bill. It has a thin pale crown stripe and a dark-streaked breast. The north-western Dupont's lark of Europe and north-west Africa is mainly brown-grey above and pale below. The south-eastern Dupont's lark, which occupies most of the rest of the African range, has rufous upperparts.<p>Its song is a repeated thin, melancholic whistling phrase, very ventriloquial (difficult to locate) and a nasal whistle given mainly at dawn and dusk or at night.
Taxonomy
Dupont's lark was originally described by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1820 and placed in the genus Alauda. It was named for the French naturalist Léonard Puech Dupont, who had collected the species and showed it to Vieillot.<p>Two subspecies are recognized:
- Scientific name
- Chersophilus duponti
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1824)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Alaudidae
- Genus
- Chersophilus
Range and habitat
It breeds across much of northern Africa, from Algeria to Egypt, and in Spain and France. It is a non-migratory resident. It is a species that commonly inhabits chaparral areas. However, it experiences a 3.9% annual population decrease in Spain with a 32.8% decrease from 2008 to 2018, shifting its conservation status to vulnerable on the national level and endangered in the regions of Andalusia and Castile-León.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
This is a very shy species, which runs for cover when disturbed. It is difficult to see while running among vegetation but it sometimes sings, standing upright on the edge of a low bush.<p>This is a bird of open sandy semi-desert or steppe with some grass. Its nest is on the ground, with three or four eggs being laid. Its food is seeds and insects.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Elegant Trogon
Trogon elegans
Striking male has bronzy-green head and breast and bright red belly; female grayish-brown with limited red belly and distinctive white squiggle behind eye. Compare with Mountain Trogon, which overlaps extensively in range. Note undertail pattern: fine black-and-white barring with large white tips on the feathers. Habitat is also useful; Elegant typically found at lower elevations than Mountain, but some overlap. Occurs from Arizona to Costa Rica in thorn forest, canyons, and mountains up to around 2000 m, locally higher. Like other trogons, stoic and unobtrusive, often sitting still for long periods of time and sallying out quickly to catch insects. Listen for series of harsh descending barks.
Red-billed Ground-Cuckoo
Neomorphus pucheranii
Impressive roadrunner-like cuckoo found in Amazonian rainforest. Large and long-tailed, with a red bill tipped with yellow and a red face. Upperparts are bronzy green with chestnut wings and a black cap, and underparts are mostly gray with a black breast band (indistinct on some birds) and faint barring on the throat. Distinguished from Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo by Red-billed’s mostly red bill, red face, completely black crown, and chestnut wings. Rarely encountered and poorly known, but like other ground-cuckoos it is terrestrial and most likely to be encountered when following swarms of army ants. Song is a very low, rising “who?” that is repeated every few seconds; also gives loud bill snaps.
Crimson Seedcracker
Pyrenestes sanguineus
A chunky-billed brown finch with an electric-red rump, red tail, and red hood that extends from the throat to the nape; the hood of the male is larger than the female’s and extends down the flanks. Juvenile is duller than the adult. A secretive and uncommon resident restricted to Upper Guinea, found in pairs in swamp forest, scrub near creeks, and thickets near water in primary and secondary forest; also sometimes in cultivation. Song is a variable series of buzzes and whistles, and call is a strident “tsut…tsut.” Male Black-bellied Seedcracker differs from Crimson by having a black (not brown) back and belly; females and juveniles are almost identical but only overlap in eastern Ivory Coast.
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